01 2A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, February 6, 2003 NATION/WORLD N. Korea restarts nuclear projects NEWS IN BRIEF HEADLINES FROM AROUND THE WORLD SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea said yesterday it has reactivated its nuclear facilities, a surprise announcement that raised questions whether it was trying to take advantage of Washington's pre- occupation with Iraq to ratchet up pressure in its own standoff with the United States. In Washington, the State Department said that if the announcement was true, "this would be a very serious development." It demanded the North "reverse this action ... North Korea must visibly, verifiably and irre- versibly dismantle its nuclear weapons program." A North Korean spokesman announced the reacti- vation, deepening the crisis over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, just before Secretary of State Colin Pow- ell spoke at the U.N. Security Council, presenting the U.S. case against Iraq. The North said the reactivated facilities would "for the present stage" be used only to produce electricity - but the United States says the facilities can pro- duce nuclear weapons within months. Even as it presses toward war with Iraq over alleged hidden weapons of mass destruction, the United States has insisted it wants a peaceful solution in its standoff with North Korea. President Bush "keeps all of his options open" but still believes the standoff can be resolved diplomati- cally, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said in an appearance on ABC's "Nightline." White House spokesman Ari Fleischer discount- ed that Pyongyang was timing the issue with Iraq developments. "North Korea has a history of doing things like they did in the '90s, outside of the context of Iraq" he said. The North's announcement came hours after South Korea opened a road across the heavily fortified border for the first time in more than half a century, trying to ease tensions with the isolated communist regime. Pyongyang wants direct talks with Washington. Analysts say North Korea, which often accuses the United States of plotting to invade it, fears Washing- ton will turn up pressure on it if a war against Iraq is successful. The North may hope that heightening the stand- off at a time when Washington is trying to concen- trate on Iraq could prompt the United States to make concessions. The Pentagon is considering bolstering U.S. forces in the region to deter the North from any provoca- tions during an Iraq war. Washington says it has no plans to invade North Korea. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld called North Korea "a terrorist regime" and said restarting the nuclear program would give the North a troubling option - making nuclear weapons for itself or sell- ing them to any other country. The United States is pressing for the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency to refer the issue to the Security Council - which would likely impose punitive sanc- tions on the North. Pyongyang vehemently opposes such a move. At the International Atomic Energy Agency, spokeswoman Melissa Fleming had no immediate comment on the report from the North. JERUSALEM Woman dies in Israeli military strike The Israeli military demolished the home of a Palestinian militant in the Gaza Strip yesterday, killing an elderly woman inside, while in the West Bank, troops shot dead a Palestinian policeman, officials and witnesses said. ' Also, the army said 15 wanted Palestinians were arrested in raids throughout the West Bank early yesterday, and seven more Palestinians were taken in for questioning. In central Gaza, Israeli forces entered the Maghazi refugee camp and tore down the house that belonged to Baha Abu Said, a militant who died during a November 2000 attack in which he killed two Israeli soldiers. Abu Said's stepmother, Kamla Abu Said, was in the home when it was demnlished, and died of chest injuries, according to relatives and doctors at the Al Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah. It was not clear why she was still in the house at the time of the demolition. Israeli troops call for people to leave a house before tearing it down, though there have been instances where deaf people were unaware of the impending demolition, and were trapped inside. Abu Said's relatives said her hearing was poor, but that she was not deaf. SPACE CENTER, Houston NASA doubts that debris doomed Columbia After days of analysis, NASA backed away yesterday from the theory that a piece of foam that struck Columbia during liftoff was the root cause of the space shuttle's disintegration over Texas. Shuttle program manager Ron Dittemore said investigators now are focusing more closely on the desperate effort of Columbia's automatic control system to hold the speed of the spacecraft stable despite an increasing level of wind resist- ance, or drag, on the left wing. Dittemore said that after a careful study of the damage possible from the fall of a chunk of foam insulation that was believed to be 20 inches and 2 1/2 pounds, investigators are "looking somewhere else." "Right now, it just does not make sense to us that a piece of debris would be the root cause for the loss of Columbia and its crew," he said. "There's got to be another reason." Dittemore said investigators are now asking if there was "another event that escaped our attention" that might have caused Columbia to break up just minutes before the end of its 16-day mission, killing all seven astronauts. -n qty 2003 REGISTRATION BEGINS Undergraduate & Graduate Courses FEBRUARY 24 M Morning, afternoon and evening classes I http://summersession.rutgers.edu Saturday morning classes Outstanding faculty Vibrant academic atmosphere Off-Campus classes at Brookdale Community College, Lincroft Freehold Colonial Campus on Rt9 Rutgers University Northwest Executive Training Facility, MLArlington For a Summer Session catalog,:incuig registration form, call 732-932-7565 Outside the 732 area code call 1-888-4RU-SUMMER " 6 /' THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY RUTGERS- I .T MICHIGAN DAILY IS SEEKING.A NEW MANAGING OL.INE EDrTOR,. KNOWLEDGE OFtH.TM.L . .REQIR. . E-WMAIL..LOU.IE. MENZLISH,.EDTDR IN CHIEF, A EIC@. MICHIGANDAILY.COM. POWELL Continued from Page IA war and rebuilding Iraq and would be operating with the support of the inter- national community. A senior White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the next 24 to 36 hours will be critical as Powell gauges reaction. The key is France, one administration offi- cial said. If President Jacques Chirac insists on vetoing such a resolution, Bush won't seek one. For many at the United Nations, a visit to Baghdad this weekend by the chief weapons inspectors, followed by their next reports to the council on Feb. 14, will be critical for any decision on war. Powell told CBS' "60 Minutes II" in an interview that he would be watching the trip closely to see "whether they. bring back anything of use for Secunity Council deliberations" next week. Powell said he is expecting to hear from the inspectors then "whether or not there -has been any change in atti- tude" on the part of the Iraqis.C Britain, America's closest ally, prefers a second resolution but would join forces with the United States against Saddam without one. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said Powell made a "most powerful" case Wednesday. Saddam is "gambling that we will lose our nerve rather than enforce our will," Straw said. Trncl ibaliof etek Sept. 1 suspect HAMBURG, Germany (AP) - Fed- eral prosecutors demanded the maxi- mum sentence of 15 years yesterday for the first Sept. 11 terror suspect to be tried, calling the defendant "a cog that kept the machinery goin.", During more than three months of testim ony, prosecutors portrayed Moroccan student Mounir el Motassad- eq, 28, as an integral part of a terror cell that included lead Sept. 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta.- They said the defendant - who admitted knowing the alleged members of the Hamburg al-Qaida cell but denied knowing about their activities - paid rent and school fees for cell members, thereby helping them main- tain the pose of normal student life in Germany "He is what we might call a founding member," chief prosecutor Walter Hemberger told the Hamburg state court as he wrapped up 4 1/2 hours of closing arguments. "The defendant decided to sacrifice himself to an ideology that despises humanity," Hemberger said. "He was closely integrated into Atta's group." Prosecutors dismissed el Motassad- eq's insistence that he knew nothing of fb t or gir-2-:Jl b on: inrt 1 n r.nA :- _ 0 0 WASHINGTON Kerry has best shot in 2004, union says Democratic Sen. John Kerry has the best chance of defeating President Bush in the 2004 presidential race, providing he can "break the bubble" of public support Bush enjoys on foreign policy, says the AFL-CIO's political chairman, Gerald McEntee. But the labor federation probably will withhold its endorsement until after the primary season, McEntee, president of the American Federa- tion of State, County and Municipal Employees, said yesterday in an interview with Associated Press reporters and editors. McEntee's support carries weight - his 1.3 million-member union in the 1992 presidential race came out very early in favor of Bill Clinton, providing the Arkansas governor with political infrastructure at a time when most other unions were backing Sen. Tom Harkin of Iowa. AFSCME is one of the largest unions in the AFL-CIO. WASHINGTON Economists predict return of recession Worried about a possible war, Wall Street has been in a funk this year and the news on Main Street hasn't been any better. Business executives are freezing new spending and hiring, fear- ful of big commitments in the face of so much uncertainty. Some analysts think the national anx- iety, heightened by the loss of the space shuttle Columbia, could be enough to derail the feeble recovery and throw the country back into recession. "The probability of a double-dip recession has certainly risen' said Sung Won Sohn, chief economist at Wells Fargo in Minneapolis. "The economy is still mired in a pretty soft patch and we have not made it to firmer ground." "Soft patch" was the phrase Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan began using last fall to describe a sig- nificant slowdown in economic growth. The economy, which had been growing at a solid 4 percent rate in the summer, screeched to a near halt during the final three months of the year, managing to eke out a tiny 0.7 percent growth rate. THE HAGUE, Nethedands World Court tells U.S. to stay executions The United States must temporarily stay the execution of three Mexican citi- zens on death row in Texas and Okla- homa, the World Court ruled yesterday. In a unanimous decision, the 15-judge panel said that the delay was needed while the UN. court investigates in full whether the men - and 48 other Mexi- cans on death row in U.S. prisons - were given their right to legal help from the Mexican government. The World Court, officially known as the International Court of Justice, is the U.N.'s court for resolving disputes between nations. It has no power to enforce its deci- sions, and the United States has disre- garded them in the past. It is the third World Court case in five years against the United States dealing with the death penalty. - Compiled from Daily wire reports. S The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by students at the University of Michigan. One copy is available free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily's office for $2. Subscriptions for fall term, starting in September, via U.S. mail are $105. Winter term (January through April) is $110, yearlong (September through April) is $190. University affiliates are subject to a reduced subscription rate. On-campus subscriptions for fal term are $35. Subscrip- tions must be prepaid. The Michigan Daily is a member of The Associated Press and The Associated Collegiate Press. ADDRESS: The Michigan Daily, 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1327. 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