Minnesota State University Reporter

Issue date: 2/5/08 Section: News Bits

Minnesota

• Sorority Recruitment, sponsored by the Minnesota State Mankato Panhellenic Council will be Feb. 12 through Feb. 16. This year's theme is "Winter Wonderland."

The event begins Feb. 12 at 9 p.m. in Centennial Student Union 284. On Wednesday, it continues at 9 p.m in the Heritage Room; Thursday and Friday at 7 p.m. in the Heritage Room.

Any women attending MSU as full-time students are able to attend.

During recruitment, women will have the opportunity to meet members of all four sororities to learn what each individual chapter has to offer.



• More than 280 junior and senior high students from 28 area schools will take part in the 57th annual South Central/Southwest Minnesota Regional Science and Engineering Fair Saturday, Feb. 16, at Minnesota State.

Exhibits will be open for public viewing from noon to 2 p.m. Saturday in the Centennial Student Union Ballroom. In addition to the 280 student contestants, the event will require more than 250 judges, including Minnesota State Mankato students, faculty, staff and area business, industry and medical professionals.



• A car crash victim on Monday thanked the Good Samaritan who stopped to help him along a rural Minnesota highway, only to have his own car stolen and crashed by one of the victim's traveling companions.

Sheldon Schoenborn, 43, of Redby, was waiting for help after the Jan. 29 crash when Chase Torgerson and his friend arrived on the scene. In a phone conversation, Schoenborn thanked Torgerson, 20, of Clearbrook, for helping to get him through the wreck alive.

"It's going to be a little bit; they're going to get you out," Schoenborn recalled Torgerson saying as he comforted and warmed him and made sure medical help was on the way to the crash scene along Highway 2 west of Bemidji.

National

The Navy must follow environmental laws placing strict limits on sonar training that opponents argue harms whales, despite President Bush's decision to exempt it, a federal judge ruled Monday.

The Navy is not "exempted from compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act" and a court injunction creating a 12 nautical-mile no-sonar zone off Southern California, U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper wrote in a 36-page decision.

"We disagree with the judge's decision," White House spokesman Tony Fratto said. "We believe the orders are legal and appropriate."

Navy spokeswoman Lt. Cmdr. Cindy Moore said the military was studying the decision.

The president signed a waiver Jan. 15 exempting the Navy and its anti-submarine warfare exercises from a preliminary injunction creating a 12 nautical-mile no-sonar zone off Southern California. The Navy's attorneys argued in court last week that he was within his legal rights.

World

• The U.S. military said Monday it accidentally killed nine Iraqi civilians during an operation targeting al-Qaida in Iraq - the deadliest known case of mistaken identity in recent months.

In northern Iraq, Turkish warplanes on Monday bombed some 70 Kurdish rebel targets, the Turkish military said. It was the fifth aerial attack against Kurdish rebel bases there in two months.

Also Monday, 15 suspected militants were killed in U.S. raids targeting a possible hideout for a senior al-Qaida in Iraq leader northeast of Baghdad, the military said.

The Iraqi civilians were killed Saturday near Iskandariyah, 30 miles south of the Iraqi capital, Navy Lt. Patrick Evans told The Associated Press.

Evans did not say exactly how the civilians died, but said the killings occurred as U.S. forces pursued suspected al-Qaida in Iraq militants. The incident is under investigation, he said.

"We offer our condolences to the families of those who were killed in this incident, and we mourn the loss of innocent civilian life," Evans said in a statement e-mailed to the AP.



• A Palestinian bomber blew himself up Monday in this desert town near Israel's nuclear reactor, killing an Israeli woman and wounding 11 people in the first suicide attack inside Israel in a year.

Police killed a second attacker after a doctor found a suicide vest while treating him for wounds suffered in the blast.

The attack fueled Israel's fears that Gaza militants would exploit a border breach with Egypt to sneak into Israel. Militants claimed the bombers entered Israel through the porous Egyptian border, about 35 miles from Dimona, and said more militants were inside Israel waiting to strike.

In Gaza, gunmen fired in the air and relatives of the bombers passed out sweets to celebrate the bombing.



From MSU press releases and the Associated Press

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