thursday, 5.24.12 the world ress akotan lawmakers: s.s

Our respect and gratitude will forever be with ourfallen military heroes and their families. Their service and sacrifice are beyond measure,and we will never forget their dedication to ourcountry and our freedom.

To all the brave men and women who serve inuniform today, we thank you for your commitmentto preserving freedom at home and around theworld. You are an inspiration to all of us, and youmake us proud to be Americans. We salute youand your families, and pray for your safe returnhome.

Honoring Their Service & Sacrifice

We remember the men and women who have so honorably servedthis country throughout history. We remember their courage, theirselflessness and their dedication. We remember the hardship, the sufferingand the sacrifice they endured. On Memorial Day and every day, weremember with respect those who have have fought to defend our democraticideals and secure our freedoms. With deep gratitude, we salute our country’sbrave and honorable veterans.

Lawmakers: S.S. Scandal Not A Lone EventWASHINGTON (AP) — Senators investigating the Secret Service

prostitution scandal said Wednesday that dozens of reported episodesof misconduct by agents point to a culture of carousing in the agencyand urged Director Mark Sullivan to get past his insistence that theromp in Cartagena was a one-time mistake.

The disconnect between the senators and Sullivan reappearedagain and again throughout the two-hour hearing, even as the SecretService chief for the first time apologized for the incident that tar-nished the elite presidential protection force. By the end, Sullivan’s jobappeared secure even as new details emerged that left little doubt, sen-ators said, that a pattern of sexual misbehavior had taken root in theagency.

“He kept saying over and over again that he basically does thinkthis was an isolated incident and I don’t think he has any basis forthat conclusion,” said Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, the senior Repub-lican on the Homeland Security panel that heard Sullivan’s first pub-lic accounting of the episode.

“For the good of the Secret Service,” added Sen. Joe Lieberman ofConnecticut, the panel chairman, “he’s got to assume that what hap-pened in Cartagena was not an isolated incident or else it will hap-pen again.” Still, Sullivan insisted repeatedly that in his 29-yearSecret Service career he had never heard anyone say that miscon-duct was condoned, implicitly or otherwise.

“I just do not think that this is something that is systemic withinthis organization,” Sullivan said.

Man Who Helped US Track bin Laden SentencedPESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A doctor who helped the CIA hunt

down Osama bin Laden was convicted Wednesday of conspiringagainst the state and sentenced to 33 years in prison, adding newstrains to an already deeply troubled relationship between the U.S.and Pakistan.

U.S. officials had urged Pakistan to release the doctor, who ran avaccination program for the CIA to collect DNA and verify the al-Qaida leader’s presence at the compound in the town of Abbottabadwhere U.S. commandos killed him in May 2011 in a unilateral raid.

The lengthy sentence for Dr. Shakil Afridi will be taken as anothersign of Pakistan’s defiance of American wishes. It could give morefuel to critics in the United States that Pakistan — which has yet toarrest anyone for helping shelter bin Laden — should no longer betreated as an ally.

The verdict came days after a NATO summit in Chicago that wasovershadowed by tensions between the two countries that arethreatening American hopes of an orderly end to the war inAfghanistan and withdrawal of its combat troops by 2014.

Islamabad was invited in expectation it would reopen supply linesfor NATO and U.S. troops to Afghanistan it has blocked for nearly sixmonths to protest U.S. airstrikes that killed 24 Pakistani troops onthe Afghan border. But it did not reopen the routes, and instead re-peated demands for an apology from Washington for the airstrikes.

States Look To Tolls To Pay Construction CostsWASHINGTON (AP) — Driving onto an Interstate highway?

Crossing a bridge on the way into work? Taking a tunnel under ariver or bay? Get ready to pay.

With Congress unwilling to contemplate an increase in the fed-eral gas tax, motorists are likely to be paying ever more tolls as thegovernment searches for ways to repair and expand the nation’scongested highways.

Tolling is less efficient and sometimes can seem less fair thanthe main alternative, gasoline taxes. It can increase traffic on sideroads as motorists seek to evade paying. Some tolling authorities— often quasi-governmental agencies operating outside the publiceye — have been plagued by mismanagement. And some public-private partnerships to build toll roads have drowned in debt be-cause of too-rosy revenue predictions.

Tolls are hardly a perfect solution. But to many states and com-munities, they’re the best option available.

“It’s very hard in this environment for states to add capacitywithout charging a toll because they can’t afford to do it,” saidJoshua Schank, president of the Eno Center for Transportation, aWashington think tank. “They’re barely able to maintain whatthey’ve got, and there is an urgent need for capacity.”

Thursday, 5.24.12ON THE WEB: www.yankton.net

NEWS DEPARTMENT: news@yankton.net 13PRESS DAKOTANthe world

Egypt Holds Landmark Presidential ElectionBY HAMZA HENDAWI AND LEE KEATHAssociated Press

CAIRO — After a lifetime of being told whowill rule them, Egyptians dove enthusiasticallyinto the uncertainty of the Arab world’s firstcompetitive presidential race Wednesday,wrestling with a polarizing choice between sec-ularists rooted in Hosni Mubarak’s old autoc-racy and Islamists hoping to infuse the statewith religion.

Waiting in long lines, voters were palpablyexcited at the chance to decide their country’spath in the vote, the fruit of last year’s stunningpopular revolt that overthew Mubarak after 29years in power. For the past 60 years, Egypt’spresidents ran unchallenged in yes-or-no refer-endums that few bothered to vote in.

Still, the choices raised worries among manyabout whether real democracy will emerge. Thefinal result, likely to come after a runoff nextmonth, will only open a new chapter of politicalstruggle.

Mohammed Salah, 26, emerged grinningfrom a poll station, fresh from casting his ballot.“Before, they used to take care of that for me,”he said. “Today, I am choosing for myself.”

Medhat Ibrahim, 58, who suffers from can-cer, had tears in his eyes. “I might die in a mat-ter of months, so I came for my children, sothey can live,” he said, as he waited to vote in apoor Cairo district. “We want to live better, likehuman beings.” He later came out flashing a fin-ger stained with the blue ink used to preventmultiple voting. “Mubarak’s policies gave mecancer,” he said, referring to the decline inhealth care under the last regime. “Now I gotmy revenge.”

Adding to the drama, this election is up inthe air. The reliability of polls is uncertain, andfour of the 13 candidates have bounced aroundthe top spots, leaving no clear front-runner.None is likely to win outright in Wednesday andThursday’s balloting, so the top two vote-get-ters enter a run-off June 16-17, with the victorannounced June 21.

The two secular front-runners are both vet-erans of Mubarak’s regime — former prime min-ister Ahmed Shafiq and former foreign ministerAmr Moussa.

The main Islamist contenders are Mo-hammed Morsi of the powerful Muslim Brother-hood and Abdel-Moneim Abolfotoh, a moderateIslamist whose inclusive platform has won himthe support of some liberals, leftists and minor-ity Christians.

The debate went right up to the doorsteps ofschools around the country where poll stationswere set up.

Some voters backed Mubarak-era veterans,believing they can bring stability after monthsof rising crime, a crumbling economy andbloody riots. Others were horrified by thethought, believing the “feloul” — or “remnants”of the regime — will keep Egypt locked in dicta-torship and thwart democracy.

Islamists, particularly the Muslim Brother-hood, saw their chance to lead a country wherethey were repressed for decades and to imple-ment their version of Islamic law. Their criticsrecoiled, fearing theocracy.

Some saw an alternative to both in a leftistcandidate, Hamdeen Sabahi, who has claimedthe mantle of Egypt’s first president, the pop-ulist Gamal Abdel-Nasser.

An Islamist victory, particularly by Morsi,will likely mean a greater emphasis on religionin government. His Muslim Brotherhood, whichalready dominates parliament, says it won’tmimic Saudi Arabia and force women to wearveils or implement harsh punishments like am-putations. But it says it does want to implementa more moderate version of Islamic law, whichliberals fear will mean limitations on manyrights.

Many of the candidates have called foramendments to Egypt’s 1979 peace treaty withIsrael, which remains deeply unpopular. None islikely to dump it, but a victory by any of the Is-lamist or leftist candidates in the race couldmean strained ties with Israel and a strongerstance in support of the Palestinians in thepeace process.

The candidates from the Mubarak regime —and, ironically, the Brotherhood, which has al-ready held multiple talks with U.S. officials —are most likely to maintain the alliance with theUnited States.

A looming question is whether either sidewill accept victory by the other. Islamists havewarned of new protests if Shafiq wins, whichthey say can only happen by fraud. Many areconvinced the ruling military wants a victory byShafiq, a former air force commander.

“Over my dead body will Shafiq or Moussawin. Why not just bring back Mubarak?” saidSaleh Zeinhom, a merchant backing Abolfotoh.“I’m certain we’ll have a bloodbath after theelections because the military council won’thand power to anyone but Shafiq.”

Shafiq was met by several dozen protestersscreaming “down with the feloul” as he arrivedto vote in an upscale neighborhood east ofCairo. Some protesters showed their contemptby holding up their shoes in his direction. Onhis way out, some mobbed him, swinging theirshoes at him as his security hustled him intohis car.

Shafiq, who was Mubarak’s last prime minis-ter until he too was forced out of his post byprotests, has been openly disparaging of the

pro-democracy youth groups who led the anti-Mubarak uprising. Critics view him as too closeto the generals who took over from Mubarakand whose own reputation is tainted by humanrights abuses and authoritarian tendencies.

But with his strongman image, he has ap-pealed to Egyptians who crave stability and fearIslamists.

“The country is going under. We need a pres-ident that implements justice and brings backsecurity. Bottom line,” said Essam el-Khatib, agovernment employee voting in the Cairo sub-urb of Maadi.

Nearby another man, Sayed Attiya, shouted,“What Shafiq? We didn’t have a revolution tobring back Shafiq!”

The Muslim Brotherhood, meanwhile, faceda backlash of its own.

The group was the biggest winner in parlia-ment elections late last year, winning nearlyhalf the seats. But it disillusioned some byseeming too power hungry, demanding to beallowed to form a government and trying todominate a panel created to draft a new con-stitution. The panel was scrapped and theprocess of writing the vital new charter is onhold as politicians struggle over forming a newone.

The image it has cultivated as an advocateof tolerance and piety was damaged by itscampaign to discredit Abolfotoh, who quit theBrotherhood to run for president, and its edictthat it is a sin to vote for anyone not advocat-ing implementation of Islamic Shariah law.

In the Mediterranean city of Alexandria,Brotherhood vans ferried women supportersto the polls in the poor neighborhood of AbuSuleiman, one of the group’s strongholds. Thewomen, in headscarves or covered head to toein black robes and veils that hid their faces,filed into the station.

Some Brotherhood supporters cited thegroup’s years of providing charity to the poor— including reduced-price meat, and free med-ical care.

MOHANNAD SABRY/MCTEgypt voters were obliged to dip a finger in permnent ink to keep anyone from voting twice duringthe presidential elections.

Facebook Stock Climbs, ButCompany Faces Many LawsuitsBY BARBARA ORTUTAYAP Technology Writer

NEW YORK — Facebook’sfourth day of trading as a publiccompany saw an increase in thecompany’s stock price and share-holder lawsuits related to the so-cial network’s botched initialpublic offering.

Facebook Inc.’s stock climbed$1, or 3.2 percent, to close at $32on Wednesday. But the gain wasonly a small reprieve for share-holders. The stock’s rocky inaugu-ral trading day Friday was followedby a two-day decline. The stock isstill trading nearly 16 percentbelow its $38 IPO price.

The initial public trading ofFacebook’s stock was tarnishedFriday morning by a half-hourdelay, caused by glitches on theNasdaq Stock Market. It wasmarred further this week as in-vestors began accusing the banksthat arranged the IPO of sharingimportant information about Face-book’s business prospects withsome clients and not others.

Several shareholders whobought stock in the IPO have filedlawsuits against Facebook, its ex-ecutives and Morgan Stanley, theIPO’s lead underwriter. At ques-

tion is whether analysts at the bigunderwriter investment banks cuttheir second-quarter and full-yearforecasts for Facebook just beforethe IPO, and told only a handful ofclients about it.

One suit, filed in U.S. DistrictCourt in New York, claims Face-book’s IPO documents containeduntrue statements and omitted im-portant facts, such as a “severe re-duction in revenue growth” thatFacebook was experiencing at thetime of the offering. The suit’sthree plaintiffs, who bought Face-book stock on its first day of trad-ing May 18, claim they weredamaged in the process.

Morgan Stanley declined tocomment. Facebook said the law-suit is without merit.

Another lawsuit, filed in SanMateo County Superior Court inCalifornia, holds Facebook and un-derwriters liable, claiming thatFacebook’s IPO documents misledinvestors. Both suits seek class ac-tion status on behalf of investorswho bought Facebook stock on Fri-day and lost money.

“No one gets it perfect, as far assaying what the financial resultsare,” said Anthony Michael Sabino,professor at John’s University’sPeter J. Tobin College of Business.

The bottom line, he added, iswhether Facebook or the under-writer had material informationabout Facebook’s finances thatwas not disclosed publicly.

“At this moment, it’s still tooearly to say,” he said. “We don’tknow enough, but this could turnout to be an issue.”

What is known is that beginningin March, Facebook began meetingwith analysts at the underwritingfirms. The gatherings are a custom-ary part of the IPO process and aredesigned to help analysts under-stand the company’s business sothey can make accurate financialprojections.

On May 9, day-three of Face-book’s pre-IPO roadshow to meetwith prospective investors, thecompany filed an amended IPOdocument that said its mobileusers were growing faster than rev-enue. According to a person famil-iar with the matter, Facebook thenhad another meeting with analystsand told them that based on thenew information in the filings, theanalysts’ forecasts should be at thelow end of the range that the com-pany gave them in April. The per-son spoke on the condition ofanonymity because they were notpublicly authorized to discuss thematter.