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U.S., North Korea near nuke deal, officials say

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The United States is close to finalizing a deal with North Korea over its nuclear program, senior State Department officials tell CNN.

In the deal being discussed, North Korea would finish disabling its nuclear reactor and provide a full accounting of its plutonium stockpile, the officials said.

In an addendum to the main agreement, North Korea also would acknowledge concerns about its proliferation and uranium enrichment activities and agree to continue cooperation with a verification process to ensure no further activities are taking place, the officials said.

Negotiations stalled for months when North Korea balked at publicly admitting to a highly enriched uranium program and to providing Syria with nuclear technology.

In softening its demand for a full declaration from North Korea, the United States concluded it is more important to get North Korea to surrender its weapons-grade plutonium than risk the deal fall apart all together, officials said.

The officials said it is less important to have North Korea confess to its past activities than it is to find a formula under which the parties have an understanding of North Korea’s nuclear program.

In exchange, they said, North Korea would be removed from the United States’ list of state sponsors of terrorism and would have sanctions removed under the Trading with the Enemy Act.

We have found a formulation which is probably good enough to address North Korea’s past behavior, one official said.

On Friday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice suggested that verifying North Korea’s claims is more important than the actual document.

You can’t verify overnight some of these complicated programs that the North Koreans have been engaged in, she told reporters. But we have to be absolutely certain that we’ve got means to do it.

We are not yet at a point where we can make a judgment as to whether or not the North Koreans have met their obligations, and we are therefore not at a point at which the United States can make a judgment as to whether or not it is time to exercise our obligations, she said following a meeting with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

One State Department official said, We have found a formulation which is probably good enough to address North Korea’s past behavior.

North Korea has allowed U.S. officials, including Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, to visit a missile factory believed to have been used for uranium enrichment in an effort to prove there were no ongoing enrichment activities.

Hill told CNN it is still important to resolve North Korea’s uranium and proliferation activities, but North Korea’s plutonium is the more immediate threat because it can be used to make nuclear weapons.

North Korea still has difficulty admitting things publicly, Hill said. We still have to deal with the proliferation issue and the HEU [highly enriched uranium] program, but it is very important to get a plutonium declaration that is not only accurate but is completely verifiable.

The United States also wants the deal to address Japan’s questions about North Korea’s alleged abductions of more than a dozen Japanese citizens in the 1970s and 1980s, officials said.

Officials said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has signed off on the elements of a deal. But they made clear nothing is final unless the whole package is agreed to by the other parties that have been involved in the six-party talks: Russia, South Korea, China and Japan.

They added that while progress has been made, more negotiations are needed and the deal could change slightly. The United States hopes to wrap up negotiations in the next few weeks, they said.

If the deal goes through, it would pave the way to move to the third part of the Six Party Agreement, which requires North Korea to permanently dismantle its nuclear reactor and destroy its plutonium stockpile.
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French hold six pirates after hostages released

Paris, France (CNN) — French troops are holding six pirates after the 30-member crew of a luxury yacht hijacked a week ago off Somalia’s coast were released, officials said Friday.

The French armed forces resolved the hostage-taking without incident, Sarkozy said in a statement that gave no details.

At a later news conference, the French military said it had captured six of the pirates who had left the ship and returned to the mainland.

The original group of pirates was believe to number between 12 and 16 people.

Sarkozy thanked the French army and other state officials who helped negotiate the release, and said he would again receive members of the hostages’ families later Friday.

Pirates seized the 288-foot, three-masted yacht last Friday. No passengers were on board.

French authorities made contact with the pirates on Sunday and sent an elite intervention group to Djibouti, which borders Somalia, to reinforce negotiations, the French Foreign Ministry said.

Authorities also monitored the yacht’s movements with a small Navy warship and reconnaissance aircraft, the ministry said.

The white yacht, named Ponant, sails on luxury cruises around the Mediterranean, Red Sea, and Arabian Sea, according to its Web site. The vessel has 32 cabins and four decks, plus lounges, a bar, and a restaurant.

The Ponant — which translates as West in French nautical usage — is owned by the Marseille, France-based Compagnie des Iles du Ponant.

Twenty-two of the crew are French, Sarkozy’s office said. Six were from the Philippines, AP reported.

Pirate attacks in the waters off Somalia are common.

The International Maritime Bureau says pirates have seized four vessels, including three tankers, in the same area since February.

The IMB calls some parts of the Somali coast high-risk areas for attacks and hijackings, and it warns vessels not making scheduled stops in Somalia to keep as far as possible from the coast.
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American Airlines CEO apologizes to passengers

(CNN) — The chief executive of American Airlines, which has grounded almost 2,500 flights over the past three days, accepted full responsibility Thursday for failing to meet government inspection standards.

I am profoundly sorry that we’ve gotten ourselves into this situation, and I thank our customers for their patience under very difficult circumstances, American CEO Gerard Arpey said Thursday afternoon.

The airline canceled 933 flights on MD-80 jets Thursday and announced 570 would be scrapped Friday.

Potential wiring hazards in wheel wells that could cause fires or problems with landing gear prompted the action.

American canceled several hundred flights for the same reason about two weeks ago.

Earlier Thursday, American said it expected all of its MD-80 jets to be flight-worthy by Saturday night.

The airline has offered to make amends to travelers with refunds, vouchers and compensation for overnight stays.

The cancellations have delayed and stranded more than 140,000 passengers.

Roger Frizzell, an airline spokesman, said the inspections involve technical compliance as opposed to flight safety. Watch how air travelers deal with disruptions

Although American was most affected by the inspections, the Federal Aviation Administration’s orders for safety checks have also affected Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Alaska Airlines and Midwest Airlines, which was the latest airline to ground planes: 13 on Thursday.

The FAA launched its inspection campaign in March, after CNN obtained documents given to congressional investigators that showed more than 100 Southwest aircraft had not had mandatory safety inspections. At a Capitol Hill hearing Thursday, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration’s safety division, Nicholas Sabatini, was told that his agency’s performance was woeful.

I think [it’s] approaching losing the confidence of the American people and the Congress, said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-West Virginia.

Lawmakers said the agency has become too close to the airline industry.

Sabatini defended the FAA’s record but said any lapse was cause for concern.

We found we had achieved 99 percent safety compliance, he told lawmakers. But, he added, It’s the other 1 percent that keeps me up at night.

Passengers scheduled to fly on an American Airlines MD-80 between Tuesday and Friday can receive a full refund or apply the value of their ticket to a future flight, the airline said.

People who stayed overnight as a result of a canceled flight can go to the company’s Web site to inquire about receiving compensation.

Arpey said that the MD-80 has been a great plane for American Airlines and that the inspection problems should have no impact on our long-term fleet plan.

The FAA is stepping up their surveillance and doing their job, Arpey said. In this case, we failed to get it right, and we’re trying very hard to get it right.

He said American plans to hire an independent consultant to examine the company’s inspection system.

Meanwhile, airports are doing their best to keep frustrated travelers happy.

Getting stuck at the airport is not like a day at the beach, but we sure are trying to make passengers as comfortable as possible, said Ken Capps, vice president of public affairs for Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in Texas.

Eateries were staying open all night, some provided free pastries and coffee, and some even handed out diapers.

The situation at American’s hub at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, was what you might see on a normal Thursday morning, CNN’s Susan Roesgen reported. American employees handing out free coffee and granola bars found few takers. Watch a report from O’Hare

At Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, American passengers reported frustration but complimented the carrier’s efforts to get them to their destinations.

We were rerouted, said Chad Duncan of San Angelo, Texas, who was in Georgia to watch practice rounds of the Masters golf tournament. They were very helpful and everything, but it’s frustrating. Instead of having one stopover, we now have three. E-mail to a friend

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Food protests end in Haiti

(CNN) — Food protests in Haiti ended Thursday as police cleared the streets of roadblocks and demonstrators abandoned their barricades.

It was really calm today, said Felix Kurt Hildebrand, an American working at a nongovernmental organization on human rights in the capital, Port-Au-Prince.

Still, he said, banks and most businesses remained shut.

Unrest began late last week in the southwestern town of Les Cayes — where demonstrations over the rising cost of living led to an attack on the local U.N. office. At least four people died there.

In recent months, prices for food and other items have skyrocketed in Haiti.

A report last month by the secretary-general on the United Nations stabilization mission in Haiti noted that Haitians’ hardship had been exacerbated by recent price hikes and said, The political situation remains fragile.

Marylynn Steckley, a Canadian volunteer with a Mennonite group, said her house in the capital is located at the forefront of the action.

Though she said she witnessed police beating peaceful demonstrators Tuesday from her front window, she did not hesitate Thursday night to walk to a neighborhood store to buy chicken and plantains. I feel comfortable on the streets, she said.

Sheer exhaustion may explain the return to peace, said Pierre Esperance, executive director of the National Human Rights Defense Network, a non-governmental organization known by its French initials RNDDH.

People have been demonstrating since Monday, he said. I think they are very tired.

He said RNDDH determined by monitoring each police station that police arrested 200 people between Monday and Wednesday.

Citing police and hospital sources, he said three men were found shot dead in Belair, about two minutes from the National Palace, but it was not clear whether they were related to the demonstrations.

Esperance said 16 of Haiti’s 27 senators sent a letter Thursday to Prime Minister Jacques-Edouard Alexis calling on him to resign.

If he doesn’t resign, they will ask him to come to the parliament on Saturday and they will fire him, Esperance predicted.

He accused Alexis of having offered no short-term plan to better the plight of Haiti, the western hemisphere’s poorest country.

Alexis is second in command to President Rene Preval.

The president appealed for restraint Wednesday, announcing a short-term plan to create jobs and increase the flow of aid. Watch as the food riots intensify

In a statement Wednesday, Esperance said his organization considers the protest movement a legitimate attempt by Haitians to reclaim their right to eat and their right to access to the basic goods used every day.

The right to eat is a fundamental right that any respectable government must guarantee for its citizens, he said.

At the same time, RNDDH deplores that this protest movement is accompanied by numerous acts of violence, of theft, of pillage. These violent acts are not acceptable in a democratic society.

He called for change in the country’s economy policy, for the creation of jobs and for an end to government corruption.

The average Haitian diet contains 1,640 calories, 460 calories short of the typical daily requirement of 2,100, according to the United Nations World Food Program.

Eighty percent of the 8.7 million Haitians live in poverty and 54 percent live in abject poverty, according to the CIA’s World Factbook.

Protests over the cost of food and fuel also have occurred in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Egypt, Indonesia, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Mozambique and Senegal, according to the World Food Program.

A call to Haiti’s embassy in Washington was not immediately returned.
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Olympic torch arrives in Argentina

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CNN) — As government billboards called on this port city’s residents to enjoy Friday’s planned leg of the Olympic torch run here, officials here were planning for possible disruptions like those that have occurred in other relay cities.

There is a little bit more attention, mostly because of the things that have happened in London, in Paris, in San Francisco, said Francisco Irarrazaval, an official with Argentina’s sports ministry.

But we also don’t want to convert this into a military event. This is a sports event, it is a cultural event, a beautiful event.

The protests that have occurred in other cities are likely to be repeated here, but in diminished form, protest planners said. The denunciations of China’s human rights policy will be accompanied by creative and peaceful interventions, one planner said.

We know that it will not be violent, said Axel Borgia, from the World Human Rights Torch Relay group. We joined all type of organizations from Tibet. They too will carry out activities during the relay of the China torch. Our activity is beforehand. We don’t plan anything during the Olympic torch.

The flame is to be carried 13 kilometers (8 miles) by athletes, artists, journalists and even an economist and a Taiwanese businessman — each person is slated to carry the torch for 90 seconds.

The final carrier is to be Gabriela Sabatini, Argentina’s top female tennis player and winner of the silver medal in Seoul in 1988.

On Thursday, a spokeswoman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon said he has told Chinese authorities that he may not be in position to attend the opening ceremonies of the games due to scheduling issues.

His announcement came a day after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said he would not attend.

U.S. President George W. Bush has not committed to attending the opening ceremony, though he does plan to attend the games.

While he’s there, he can also take an opportunity to press them on religious freedoms, because this is something that is going to continue after the Olympics, said White House Press Secretary Dana Perino. And not attending an opening ceremony, whether anyone does or not, does not really change the fact that we need to press them before, during and well after the Olympics.

In Beijing on Thursday, International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge called the events a crisis in an address to the 205 National Olympic Committees.

It is a crisis, there is no doubt about that, he said. But the IOC has weathered many bigger storms. The history of the Olympic games is fraught by a lot of challenges. This is a challenge.

Still, he defended the demonstrators’ rights to protest.

A person’s ability to express his or her opinion is a basic human right and as such does not need to have a specific clause in the Olympic Charter because its place is implicit, he said.

But we do ask that there is no propaganda nor demonstrations at Olympic games venues for the very good and simple reason that we have 205 countries and territories represented, many of whom are in conflict, and the games are not the place to take political nor religious stances.

He predicted that there would be few breaches of decorum. Athletes are mature and intelligent people, he said. They will know what they can say or not say. If they have doubts, the IOC and the NOCs are here to guide them.
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