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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 28, 2004)
| Global update Today Wednesday Thursday 'ri* High: 78 High: 71 High: 78 Low: 50 Low: 47 Low: 49 Precip: 0% Precip: 0% Precip: 20% V "•w ' A U n \ IN BRIEF DA won't prosecute bishop accused of rape SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — Just hours after an indictment against former Springfield Bishop Thomas Dupre was unsealed Monday accusing him of mo lesting two boys in the 1970s, the county prosecutor refused to pursue the case because the statute of limita tions has expired. The decision by Hampden District Attorney William Bennett means that, though Dupre is the first Roman Catholic bishop to face criminal charges in the sex abuse scan dal still plaguing the U.S. church, he won’t go to trial for them. Trial ordered in Florida e-ballot lawsuit TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A mere five weeks before Election Day, a fed eral appeals court revived a lawsuit Monday demanding that all Florida voters who use touchscreen ma chines receive a paper receipt, in case a recount becomes necessary. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals told a federal judge in Fort Laud erdale to reopen the case, which could affect 15 Florida counties whose electronic voting terminals do not issue paper records. Audit finds large FBI translation backlog WASHINGTON — The FBI has a backlog of hundreds of thousands of hours of untranslated audio record ings from terror and espionage inves tigations, despite large increases in I money and personnel for transla tions since the 2001 terror attacks, a Justice Department audit released Monday said. In addition, the audit by Glenn A. Fine, the agency’s in spector general, found more than one-third of al-Qaida intercepts au thorized by a secret federal court were not reviewed within 12 hours of collection as required by FBI Di rector Robert Mueller. U.S. jets pound militant positions in Iraq BAGHDAD, Iraq — Two car bombs killed seven Iraqi national guardsmen and a rocket barrage hit a police academy Monday. Insur gents kept up their offensive to sub due Iraq’s beleaguered security forces. U.S. jets pounded suspected militant positions in a Baghdad slum. Two U.S. soldiers with the 1st Infantry Division were killed in sep arate incidents Monday near Balad, north of the capital. The first died in a car crash and the second was killed when a patrol came under fire as it returned from the crash, the military said. DEA's failed battle to ban hemp food has ended SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — Food products made with hemp will re main legal after the Justice Depart ment declined to challenge a ruling that overturned a Bush administra tion ban, lawyers for the hemp in dustry said. Monday night was the deadline for the government to challenge a federal appeals court’s February de cision that the United States cannot ban the domestic sale of hemp foods. The appeals court decision was a victory for more than 200 compa nies that make products including energy bars, waffles, milk-free cheese and veggie burgers with the plant that contains only trace amounts of THC, the key ingredient in marijuana. — The Associated Press North Korea increases nuclear weapons stock The nation is expanding its 'nuclear deterrent' as a response to threats of war from United States BY EDITH M. LEDERER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS UNITED NATIONS — North Ko rea has turned the enriched urani um from 8,000 spent nuclear fuel rods into weapons to serve as a de terrent against a possible nuclear strike by the United States, a North Korean minister said Monday. Warning that the danger of war on the Korean peninsula “is snow balling,” Vice Foreign Minister Choe Su Hon blamed the United States for intensifying threats to attack the communist nation and destroying the basis for negotiations to resolve the dispute about Pyongyang’s nu clear program. Without specifying what kinds or the number of weapons it has, Choe said North Korea has been left with “no other option but to possess a nuclear deterrent” because of U.S. policies that he claimed were de signed to “eliminate the DPRK by force while designating it as part of an ‘axis of evil’ and a target of pre emptive nuclear strikes.” DPRK stands for Democratic Peo ple's Republic of Korea, the North's official name. When asked if the fuel had been turned into actual weapons, not just weapons-grade material, Choe said: “We declared that we weaponized this.” In Washington, a State Depart ment official noted that the admin istration has long believed North Ko rea has at least one or two nuclear weapons. The official, who asked not to be identified, also said the North Koreans have made conflict ing statements about how far along their weapons-development pro grams have come. But Choe told the U.N. General Assembly that North Korea is still ready to dismantle its nuclear pro gram if Washington abandons its “hostile policy” and is prepared to coexist peacefully. At the moment, however, he said “the ever-intensifying U.S. hostile policy and the clandestine nuclear related experiments recently re vealed in South Korea are constitut ing big stumbling blocks” and make it impossible for North Korea to par ticipate in the continuation of six nation talks on its nuclear program. A State Department official said North Korea should take part in the party discussions and noted that Sec retary of State Colin Powell has said repeatedly that the United States has no plans to attack that country. At a press conference afterward with reporters, the North Korean ambassador was asked what was in cluded in the nuclear deterrent. “We have already made clear that we have already reprocessed 8,000 wasted fuel rods and transformed them into arms,” he said. Julie Enzer, head of the Washing ton-based Nuclear Policy Research Institute, when asked about Choe’s comments, said “it certainly sounds like they've taken the spent fuel rods and further enriched them to be weapons-grade uranium and put them in some kind of weapon.” North Korea said earlier this year that it had reprocessed the spent nu clear fuel rods and was increasing its “nuclear deterrent” but had not provided any details. The crisis erupted in 2002 when the United States accused North Ko rea of running a secret nuclear weapons program. The United States, the two Koreas, Japan, China and Russia since have held three rounds of talks on curbing the North's nuclear ambitions but have produced no breakthroughs. The State Department official not ed that Secretary of State Colin Pow ell has said repeatedly that the Unit ed States has no plans to attack North Korea. At the third round of talks in June, the United States proposed that the North disclose all its nuclear activi ties, help to dismantle facilities and al low outside monitoring. Under the plan, some benefits would be with held to ensure the North cooperates. North Korea said it would never scrap its nuclear programs first and wait to get rewarded later. Instead, it insisted .on “reward for freeze.” Choe told the General Assembly North Korea's proposal was aimed at building “mutual confidence” and a freeze would be “the first step toward eventual dismantlement of our nu clear program.” But he said the dis pute must be solved step-by-step. Choe indicated there was a chance for revival of the talks. “If the United States has the will to co-exist peacefully with the DPRK by abandoning its hostile policy on the DPRK, the nuclear issue will be resolved properly,” he said. I Buy your textbooks on eBay and save up to ®GD* the list price. PREVENT OVERSPENDING College tor lea. More tor you. 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