0 2A - The Michigan Daily - Tuesday, January 6, 2004 NATION/WORLD Officials fingerprint foreign travelers NEWS IN BRIEF HEADLINES FROM AROUND THE WORD h A A TA(AP)- Authorities port yesterday after noon amid their "A . began scanning fingerprints and taking photographs of arriving foreigners yes- terday as part of a new program that Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said will make borders "open to travelers but closed to terrorists." The program, aimed at letting Cus- toms officials instantly check an immi- grant or visitor's criminal background, targets foreigners entering the 115 U.S. airports that handle international flights, as well as 14 major seaports. The exceptions will be visitors from 27 countries - mostly European nations - whose citizens are allowed to come to the United States for up to 90 days without visas. Also excepted will be most Canadians, because they usually are not required to get visas, and those Mexicans who are coming into the country for a short time and not venturing far from the border. Five weary members of the Takai family sat at Detroit Metropolitan Air- . Korea making ni luggage awaiting a ride to their home in Troy. Back in Tokyo where they began their 12-hour Northwest Airlines flight, it was about 4 a.m. Tuesday. Roy Takai, 40, and his 38-year-old wife, Noriko, said the fingerprinting and photographing added 5 to 10 min- utes to the entry process. Sons Shohei, 14, and Yuma, 12, were printed as well. Takumi, 8, was exempted because of his age. "As long as it doesn't take much time, it's fine for us," said Roy Takai, a Japanese citizen who works for an auto parts wholesaler. "From the point of the United States, they should take more serious action" on security. Yuma said he did not mind being photographed and printed. "It's a regulation," he said, taking a break from the handheld video game he was playing with his older brother. Ridge was at Hartsfield-Jackson offers to udear wea As iong as L doesnt tk zemuch tnme, its fime WASHINGTON for us' - Roy Takai Officials kill offspring of diseased cow Japanese citizen Atlanta International Airport yester- day to meet with some of the first for- eign passengers to go through the new system. He described the move as "part of a comprehensive program to make sure our borders remain open to travelers but closed to terrorists." "It's easy for travelers to use but hard for terrorists to avoid," Ridge said yesterday. In a pilot program at Hartsfield-Jack- son that preceded yesterday's nationwide implementation, authorities turned up 21 people on the FBI's criminal watch list for such crimes as drug offenses, rape and visa fraud, Ridge said. Foreigners also will be checked as they leave the country as an extra secu- rity measure and to ensure they com- plied with visa limitations. Most passengers breezed through the fingerprinting and picture-taking yesterday, spending only a few seconds more than they normally would at the Customs station where they're asked about their visits. But one traveler doubted the pro- gram would deter terrorists because they could come from the 27 countries that are exempt from visa checking. "It's easy, but I don't think it's going to be effective," said Carlos Thome, who flew in yesterday from Sao Paulo, Brazil. "You can also have terrorists in Europe." U.S. agriculture officials have decided to kill 450 calves in a Washington state herd that includes an offspring of the cow diagnosed with mad cow disease. Ron DeHaven, the Agriculture Department's chief veterinarian, said yesterday that the month-old calves would be slaughtered this week at an undisclosed facili- ty that is not being used. He also announced that USDA officials would visit Mexico to discuss that country's ban on American beef products following the diagnosis last month of the first U.S. case of mad cow disease. Mexico is one of more than 30 countries to halt U.S. beef imports. The herd that is to be destroyed is one of three under quarantine in Washington because of ties to the diseased Holstein. The other herds contain cows that proba- bly are from the same Alberta farm as the 6 1/2-year-old Holstein, but DNA tests to confirm the cow's origins are not complete. Officials decided to kill all month-old calves in the Sunnyside, Wash., herd because they cannot determine which one was born to the infected cow. While officials have said contaminated feed is the most likely source of infection, they cannot rule out transmission of the disease from mother to calf. ISLAMABAD, Pakistan Indian and Pakistani leaders hold talks India's prime minister held a much-anticipated, face-to-face meeting yesterday with Pakistan's military president, a historic step toward better relations between the bitter enemies and nuclear-armed neighbors. Officials kept a tight lid on discussions, suggesting that revealing details could jeopardize nascent peace overtures that both sides increasingly see as necessary to propel economic growth and boost cooperation. Foes since the end of British rule more than 50 years ago, the two sides frittered away their postcolonial promise, fighting wars and failing to overcome the poison- ous dispute over the Himalyan territory of Kashmir. Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf, who survived two assassination attempts last month, welcomed Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at his Islamabad residence for a one-hour meeting. Their talk overshadowed a summit of the seven-nation South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation - the event that brought them together. "The two leaders discussed the positive impact of the recent confidence-building measures and hopes that their momentum would be maintained," said Masood Khan, a spokesman at Pakistan's Foreign Ministry. stop pons SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea offered today to refrain from producing nuclear weapons as a "bold concession" to rekindle talks over its arms programs. The move comes as the United States, China, Russia, Japan and the two Koreas scramble to arrange a new round of negotiations, with South Korea and Russian saying they are unlikely this month. North Korea has said before it is willing to freeze its "nuclear activities" in exchange for U.S. aid and being taken off Washington's roster of ter- rorism sponsoring nations. Today it specified it was "set to refrain from testing and production of nuclear weapons and stop even operating (its) nuclear power industry for a peaceful purpose." In a commentary carried by the official KCNA news agency, North Korea called the offer "one more bold concession." The United States has said it wants North Korea to verifiably begin dismantling its nuclear weapons programs before it delivers any concessions. In Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Losyukov blamed the delay yesterday on disagreements over the wording of a final doc- ument for the talks. He said efforts to set up more talks were "very difficult" and that a final document could not be forged because of "mistrust and increased demands on each other" by the United States and North Korea, according to Russia's Interfax news agency. Today, North Korea said its first-step proposal should be the focus of preparations for new talks. "If the United States keeps ignoring our efforts and continues to pressurize the DPRK to scrap its nuclear weapons program first while shelving the issue of making a switchover in its policy toward the DPRK, the basis of dialogue will be demol- ished and a shadow will be cast over the prospects of talks," the North's official news agency KCNA said in a commentary. KCNA was monitored by South Korea's Yon- hap news agency. DPRK stands for Democratic People's Repub- lic of Korea, North Korea's official name. Chinese and Russian officials met in Moscow yesterday to try smoothing a way toward a new session of six-nation talks. A first round of talks in Beijing in August ended with little progress. Russia and China are working on a compromise that assumes the liquidation of the North Korean nuclear program may take more than one year. Agreement to a "freeze" of nuclear work by Pyongyang would be the first step toward dis- mantlement, according to ITAR-Tass. There were hopes a new round could open early this year, after differences between the Unit- ed States and North Korea prevented more nego- tiations before the close of 2003. But Russian and South Korean officials said yesterday talks would probably not happen this month. BEIJING SARS caseromps China to wildlife Faced with the return of SARS, China yesterday ordered wild animals slaughtered by the thousands in the dis- ease's suspected region of origin, a striking response that elicited calls for caution from international doctors con- cerned about safety and destroying medical evidence. The decision to kill up to 10,000 civet cats and related specialty-food creatures in the wildlife markets of the southern province of Guangdong - animals suspected of being SARS car- riers - came as the first case of SARS in China this season was con- firmed after more than two weeks of intricate tests. Adding to Asia's SARS unease, a husband and wife in the Philippines who fell ill after returning from Hong Kong were placed in isolation to await test results. And Hong Kong stepped up health surveillance at border check- points with mainland China. SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt U.S. citizens die in Egyptian plane crash Searchers hunting for the wreckage of an airliner zeroed in on a signal late yesterday that could be the black box - holding clues to the cause of the Red Sea crash that killed all 148 people aboard, a French embassy official said. The U.S. State Department, mean- while, said four people with dual U.S.- Egyptian citizenship were among the dead, the first word that Americans were on the Flash Airlines flight, which was bound for Paris via Cairo. Most of the passengers were French tourists. The plane, an 11-year-old Boeing 737 operated by the private Cairo-based car- rier, crashed shortly after takeoff Satur- day from this popular Red Sea resort. PASADENA, Calif. Rover takes pictures of Mars panorama Combining 21st-century rocket sci- ence and 1950s B-movie technology, NASA yesterday released a 3-D, black- and-white panoramic picture of the bleak surface of Mars snapped by the newly, landed rover Spirit. Reporters at a news conference were issued cardboard 3-D glasses to look at the 360-degree image of a desolate, wind-scoured plain strewn with rocks. "I feel like I'm at a bad, '50s B- movie;' mission manager Matt Wallace said as he watched a roomful of reporters take in the image at NASA's Jet Propul- sion Laboratory. - Compiled from Daily wire reports. An image taken by Space Imaging's IKONOS satellite pictures the southern area of North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear facility. IFMihigan Book & Supply / UlrichVs Bookstore TestimonialI Ir aqmay be ruled as fiederal state BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - The Gov- erning Council is close to agreeing on a federal system for Iraq and will defer until next year the explosive issue of whether to give greater autonomy to the northern Kurdish region, two coun- cil members said yesterday. Dividing Iraq into federal states along ethnic and religious lines is a sensitive matter for Iraqis as well as for others in the region who fear such sep- arations will lead to the disintegration of the country. Turkey and Iran also worry about an increasingly autonomous Kurdistan because of their own Kurdish minorities. In London, meanwhile, Foreign Sec- retary Jack Straw said British forces would likely remain in Iraq for years to come. He said he could not give an "exact timescale" for their withdrawal but added "it is not going to be months. ... I can't say whether it is going to be 2006, 2007." Three U.S. soldiers were wounded when a roadside bomb exploded near a U.S. military convoy west of Baghdad, and insurgents shot and wounded anoth- er soldier in an ambush northwest of the capital, the military said yesterday. All four soldiers were wounded Sunday. The violence underscored remarks by British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Sunday that the U.S.-led coalition must "get on top of the security situation" in Iraq as the country prepares for self-rule. In Baghdad, members of the Iraqi Governing Council were focusing on how to structure the country in the post-Saddam Hussein era, including a proposal by the council's five Kurdish members to allow Kurdistan to exist as an autonomous region. Dara Nor al-Din, a Kurdish member, said the council has not gone beyond agreeing on the principle of federalism WWW.MICNIGANDAILY.COM The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the fall and winter terms by students at the University of Michigan. 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