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2 I Thursday, June 29, 2006 | The Red & Black
NEWS
UGA TODAY
Thursday, June 29
>- Campus Blood Drive.
Sponsored by the American Red
Cross. 10:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
School of Law student lounge,
ground floor. Contact 678-227-
4650.
Friday, June 30
>- Rock Climbing Trip.
Sponsored by the Georgia
Outdoor Recreation Program. This
rock climbing instruction provides
both beginner and intermediate
climbers with a wealth of experi
ence. The outings cover a wide
range of topics from beginner and
basic technique and systems to
advanced topics such as lead
climbing and self-rescue tech
niques. Clinics required for trips.
Through Saturday, July 1. Sand
Rock, Ala. Contact (706) 542-
5060, dwaters@uga.edu,
www.recsports.uga.edu/outdoor.
► Surf Camp. Sponsored by the
Georgia Outdoor Recreation
Program. Cost includes transporta
tion, camping fees at the K.O.A., and
a group surfing lesson plus 2-hour
surf board rental. Sign up deadline:
Friday, June 16. Through Sunday,
July 2, 2006. Wrightsville Beach,
NC. Contact dwaters@uga.edu,
(706) 542-5060,
www.recsports.uga.edu/outdoor.
Tuesday, July 4
>- Independence Day Holiday.
No classes. UGA offices closed.
Wednesday, July 5
>- Last day of classes for sum
mer short session I.
> Midpoint of summer thru
term.
Ongoing
>- Open Forum: Candidate Visit
for Director of Intercultural
Affairs. Sponsored by the Office
of the Vice President for Student
Affairs. Candidate Kevin
Carreathers: June 27th, 4:00 -
5:00 p.m., 138 Tate Center; June
28th, 10:45 a.m. -11:45 p.m., 138
Tate Center and 5:00 - 7:00 p.m.,
Atlanta Alumni Center. Through
Wednesday, June 28. Contact
(706) 542-9890, sheri7@uga.edu.
>- Construction advisory: Old
College renovation. The con
struction fence has been removed,
and sidewalks around the building
are now open as interior renova
tions are completed. Through
Friday, June 30.
>- Construction Advisory:
Smith Street closed. The portion
of Smith Street between
Rutherford Street and the upper
entrance to the Carlton Street
Parking Deck will be closed
through Wednesday, July 5,
depending on weather and con
struction progress. All entrances to
the deck will remain open, with
access to the upper entrance from
Carlton Street.
>- Online parking registration
for 2006-07 year. Faculty, staff
and students desiring a campus
parking permit for the 2006-07
year must register online at
www.parking.uga.edu before the
deadline of 5 p.m. July 11.
>- Construction Advisory:
Lumpkin St. Reconstruction.
The contractor will install storm
water lines along the west side of
Lumpkin from Baldwin to Baxter
Streets from approximately June
11 through July 14.
>- Exhibition - Let Loose Upon
Innocence: George Bellows and
World War. Sponsored by the
Georgia Museum of Art. This exhi
bition features a series of paint
ings, drawings, and prints that
focus on the atrocities committed
by the Germans in Belgium during
the First World War. Through
Sunday, July 30. Georgia Museum
of Art.
Contact www.uga.edu/gamuseum.
CORRECTIONS
The Red & Black is
committed to journalis
tic excellence and pro
viding the most accu
rate news possible.
Contact us if you see
an error, and we will
do our best to correct
it.
Editor-in-Chief:
Colin Dunlop
(706) 433-3027
cdunlop @randb .com
Managing Editor:
Lyndsay Hoban
(706) 433-3026
lhoban@randb.com
TOP STORIES FROM AROUND
THE STATE, NATION AND WORLD
HISTORY IN THE MAKING
BRENNAN LINSLEY | Associated Press
A In this photo reviewed by U.S. military officials, a U.S. soldier guards a gate within the compound of the U.S. mili
tary-run prison at the Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba on Monday, June 26. The Supreme Court is expected
to rule on the legality of President Bush’s decision to create U.S. military tribunals for the detainees at Guantanamo, the
first such tribunals since World War II.
High tribunal announces second
Saddam trial to open in August
BAGHDAD, Iraq —
Saddam Hussein and six co
defendants will stand trial
starting Aug. 21 for his 1980s
military campaign against
Kurds, Iraq’s High Tribunal
said Tuesday, June 27.
An estimated 100,000
Kurds were killed in the oper
ation in northern Iraq.
Known as “Anfal,” Arabic for
“spoils of war,” the campaign
was aimed at crushing inde
pendence-minded Kurdish
militias and clearing out the
Kurdish population along the
NEW YORK — Warren
Buffett’s contribution of
about $1.5 billion a year to
the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation will be used to
seek cures for the world’s
worst diseases and improve
American education, Bill
Gates said Monday.
“There is no reason we
can’t cure the top 20 dis
eases,” Gates said while
appearing with Buffett during
a donation ceremony at the
New York Public Library.
The Buffett and Gates
families, as well as onlookers,
were beaming as the so-
called Oracle of Omaha offi
cially made his benevolence a
reality.
“There is more than one
way to get to heaven, but this
is a great way,” said Buffett.
He presented the biggest gift
to Gates, and $1 billion dona
tions to his own foundation
and the foundations run by
each of his three children.
Buffett said he had made
some suggestions about how
to use the money. “I think
their judgment above the
ground is going to be a lot
better than mine 6 feet below
the ground,” he said at a later
appearance.
Buffett said his children
have known all along that
much of their family's wealth
would be given back to socie
ty. “They consider themselves
lucky. They don’t consider
themselves quite as lucky as
if they had a father with a dif
ferent view.”
In a letter dated Monday,
Buffett had informed Bill and
Melinda Gates that the first
donation of Berkshire
Hathaway Inc. stock would
go to the foundation next
month.
The foundation, which has
assets of $30.6 billion, spends
money on world health,
poverty and increasing access
to technology in developing
countries. In the United
States, it focuses on educa
tion and technology in public
libraries.
The money from Buffett,
who is 75 but considered
strong and healthy, comes
with a significant catch. The
letter says Buffett wants all
his money to be distributed
in the year it is donated, not
added to the foundation's
sensitive Iranian border.
Saddam accused Kurdish
militias of ties to Iran.
Thousands of Kurdish vil
lages were razed and their
inhabitants killed or dis
placed.
The campaign included
“savage military attacks on
civilians,” including “the use
of mustard gas and nerve
agents...to kill and maim rural
villagers and to drive them
out of their homes,” the tribu
nal said in a memo.
Saddam and seven other
assets for future giving.
The gifts would be worth
nearly $37 billion, which rep
resents the bulk of the $44
billion that Buffet’s stock
holdings are worth today.
Five-sixths of the shares will
be earmarked for the Gates
Foundation.
New program may
help guard privacy
WASHINGTON — The
Bush administration said
Friday an anti-terrorism pro
gram that taps into an
immense international data
base of confidential financial
records has adequate safe
guards to protect Americans’
privacy.
Democrats and civil liber
ties groups said the effort had
disturbing similarities to
another controversial anti
terrorism program of war
rantless spying on telephone
calls and e-mails.
Treasury Secretary John
Snow called the financial-
records effort “government at
its best” and said it was
“entirely consistent with our
democratic values, with our
best legal traditions.”
The program, kept secret
until it was revealed
Thursday by news organiza
tions, has been going on since
shortly after the Sept. 11,
2001, terror attacks.
Using broad government
subpoenas, the program
allows U.S. counterterrorism
co-defendants have been on
trial since Oct. 19 for the
deaths of Shiite Muslims fol
lowing a 1982 assassination
attempt against him in the
town of Dujail.
That trial is in recess until
next month when the defense
is to present its closing argu
ments. Chief prosecutor
Jaafar al-Moussawi said the
Anfal and Dujail cases would
proceed in tandem if the
Dujail case judges have not
reached a verdict by Aug. 21.
“Yet, I think that case will
analysts to obtain financial
information from a vast data
base maintained by a compa
ny based in Belgium. It
routes about 11 million finan
cial transactions daily among
7,800 banks and other finan
cial institutions in 200 coun
tries.
The existence of the pro
gram was first reported
Thursday night on the Web
sites of The New York Times,
the Los Angeles Times and
The Wall Street Journal. The
administration had argued
for the media to withhold
details.
Vice President Dick
Cheney, speaking at a politi
cal luncheon in Chicago,
denounced the decision to
reveal the existence of the
financial monitoring program
and the earlier-disclosed
National Security Agency sur
veillance program.
“What I find most disturb
ing about these stories is that
some of the news media take
it upon themselves to dis
close vital national security
programs, thereby making it
more difficult for us to pre
vent future attacks against
the American people,”
Cheney said. “That offends
me.”
Georgia marriage
ban still debated
ATLANTA — Georgia’s con
stitutional ban on gay mar
riage is so confusing that
be closed by then,” he said.
Iraqi authorities chose to
try Saddam separately for
various alleged crimes rather
than lump all the cases
together.
Saddam and others
charged in the Dujail case
could be hanged if found
guilty. But President Jalal
Talabani, a Kurd, said he
doubted any sentence would
be carried out until all trials
were complete — a process
likely to take years.
— Associated Press
“even the president of the
United States could not have
voted his conscience” if he
had to cast a ballot, a lawyer
for the ban’s opponents
argued Tuesday.
John Stephenson told jus
tices at the state’s top court
that President Bush — like
many Americans — opposes
gay marriage but believes
that same sex couples are
entitled to certain rights and
benefits. The state’s gay mar
riage ban links the two issues
in violation of the state’s
long-standing single subject
ballot rule, he said.
But Stefan Ritter, senior
assistant attorney general,
said the two sections of the
amendment were after the
same end.
“The purpose here is to
limit the rights and benefits
of marriage to unions
between a man and woman,”
Ritter argued.
The lawyers laid out their
cases in 40 minutes of argu
ments before the Georgia
Supreme Court. Voters
approved the ban with a 76
percent majority in
November 2004, even though
the state already had a law on
the books making same-sex
marriage illegal.
Public housing may
be demolished
NEW ORLEANS — A law
suit filed Tuesday alleges that
a federal plan to demolish
four sprawling public housing
complexes in New Orleans is
discriminatory and violates
international laws that pro
tect people displaced by nat
ural disasters.
The suit was filed by sever
al residents against the U.S.
Department of Housing and
Urban Development and the
Housing Authority of New
Orleans, or HANO. HANO
was effectively taken over by
HUD four years ago because
of mismanagement.
Following the destruction
of Hurricane Katrina, HUD
recently laid out a plan to
demolish four complexes,
reopen others and give public
housing residents more
money to rent homes with
vouchers.
— Associated Press
NEWS OF THE WEIRD
Comcast
puts man
to sleep
PHILADELPHIA —
Philadelphia-based
Comcast also said in a
statement that it had
apologized to customer
Brian Finkelstein of
Washington, D.C., for the
“unsatisfactory customer
experience.”
Finkelstein posted
video of the sleeping
technician and told this
story on YouTube.com, a
site that lets users share
videos.
His Comcast Internet
connection had worked
only intermittently since
he moved to a new apart
ment June 1. A Comcast
employee who came to
Finkelstein’s home June
14 to replace the modem
called the company for
help. Put on hold for
more than an hour, he
caught some shut-eye
while he waited.
Finkelstein, a
Georgetown University
law student, picked up
his video camera, added
an Eels song with the
lyrics “I need some
sleep,” and sent it to
YouTube. The 58-second
video has been viewed
more than 227,000 times
since it was posted.
Finkelstein told The
Philadelphia Inquirer in
an e-mail message that
his service has been fixed.
Drunk pelican
hits windshield
LAGUNA BEACH,
Calif. — The driver was
sober. The bird that
crashed through the
windshield of his car
might have been flying
under the influence.
A California brown pel
ican probably was intoxi
cated by a naturally
occurring toxin found in
algae blooms when she
hit the car on the Pacific
Coast Highway in Orange
County Thursday, wildlife
officials said.
The driver was star
tled, but not hurt. The
pelican needed surgery
for a broken foot, and
also had a gash on its
pouch.
“She’s hanging in
there,” said Lisa Birkle,
assistant wildlife director
at the Wetlands and
Wildlife Care Center in
Huntington Beach.
Though toxicology
tests take several weeks,
the odd bird behavior
was likely the result of
poisoning from domoic
acid, which has been
found in the ocean in the
area, Birkle said.
Pelicans have excellent
eyesight and are unlikely
to fly into cars when
sober, Birkle said.
The center has
received 16 calls of
strange bird behavior in
the past week, and was
holding three other birds
found disoriented and
wandering through yards
and streets.
Man on heroin
avoids jury duty
COLUMBUS, Ohio — A
man made a mockery of
the justice system when
he tried to get removed
from a jury pool in a
death penalty case by
claiming he is a heroin
addict and a killer, a
judge said.
Benjamin Ratliffe, 21,
of Columbus, was
charged with contempt of
court and obstruction of
justice and ordered to
spend a night in jail.
Ratliffe filled out a
questionnaire form for
potential jurors and pro
fessed to having a “bad
jonesin' for heroin.” When
asked if he had ever fired
a weapon, he wrote, “Yes.
I killed someone with it,
of course. Right.”
Ratliffe doesn’t believe
in the death penalty and
wanted to be excused
from the trial, said his
attorney, Scott Weisman.
“He didn’t try to
defend his responses, and
he lied under oath and he
was insubordinate,” said
Lynch, who removed
Ratliffe from the jury
pool.
— Associated Press
Buffett donates shares for medical work
SETH WENIG | Associated Press
A (From left) Bill Gates, Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett
at a press conference Monday, June 26. Buffett, chairman
of Berkshire Hathaway, recently announced his intention of
giving 10 million shares of his company to charity.