| 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.
Play online for a chance to WIN!**
^ $2,500 eBay Shopping Spree! ^
SoBe cooler and drinks for a year!
Mobile phone and $50
Verizon Wireless gift card!
^ Thousands of other prizes!
ri
f
Prizes provided by:
SoBe
GtPf
Anythinflff
point* MM
Ven70nwireless
www.ebay.com/college
•Savings based on a comparison of average sale prices for most popular textbooks on eBay.com during January 2004; with the list price of those books.
**No purchase necessary. The eBay Prevent Overspending Match and Win Game begins at 12:00 AM PDT 8/10/04 and ends at 11:59 PM PDT 9/30/04. Game is open to legal residents of the 50 United States and the District of
Columbia, 18 years of age and older. Void in Puerto Rico and where prohibited. $2500 shopping spree to be awarded as eBay Anything Points. For details and full official rules, go to www.ebay.com/collcgerules
© 2004 eBay Inc. All rights reserved. eBay and the eBay logo are registered trademarks of eBay Inc. Designated trademarks and brands are the property of their respective owners.