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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

China offers plan for N. Korea nukes

Compiled from wire reports The Spokesman-Review

Beijing

China circulated a proposed agreement on broad principles for ending North Korea’s nuclear weapons program Saturday, seeking to push forward long-stalled six-party talks aimed at guaranteeing a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula.

The Chinese draft, which diplomats discussed without reaching a conclusion, was seen as an attempt to pull together the lowest common denominator of views that have been laid out during five days of intense but so far fruitless negotiations, including an unprecedented half-dozen bilateral meetings between U.S. and North Korean diplomats.

“We’re operating from a piece of paper now, and we’ll see what we can do,” said Christopher Hill, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs and leader of the U.S. delegation.

Hill has said that signing off on a list of what he called “agreed principles” was the main goal of the current round of talks, which began Tuesday. The idea, he explained, is to use the agreement on principles as a foundation for further talks and a demonstration that the six-party process is worth pursuing.

Black teen dies after apparent racial attack

Liverpool, England

A black teenager who was followed through a park by a group of men died Saturday after an attacker embedded an ax in his skull.

Anthony Walker, 18, was waiting for a bus with his girlfriend and a cousin when a man started shouting racist taunts at them late Friday near Walker’s home in Liverpool, police said.

The three left to find another bus stop to avoid any trouble, police said. But a group of three or four men followed them through a park, and Walker’s companions saw someone bludgeon him with an ax.

They ran to get help and returned a few minutes later to find him with the ax embedded in his skull, news reports said. Walker died early Saturday.

No arrests had been made in the attack.

“What we are dealing with here is a vicious and unprovoked attack on a young black man which we believe to be racially motivated,” said Detective Chief Superintendent Peter Currie.

Police said several other incidents of racial abuse had been reported in the area recently.

Egyptian police quell protests with violence

Cairo, Egypt

Dozens of protesters were kicked, beaten with clubs and thrown into trucks on Saturday by hundreds of police and plainclothes agents who rushed the streets to stifle a protest against President Hosni Mubarak.

The beatings occurred in the heart of downtown Cairo just days after Mubarak announced his candidacy in Egypt’s first presidential election. The Egyptian regime has touted September’s voting as a ground-breaking step toward democracy. It will be the first time Egyptians have had a chance to choose a president from among multiple candidates; Mubarak has enjoyed a 24-year run as uncontested ruler.

Critics insist that the election is an artifice designed to ease international pressures from the United States and elsewhere without stripping Mubarak of power.

Uganda to reinstate multiparty system

Kampala, Uganda

Ugandans voted overwhelmingly in support of their country’s return to a multiparty system, which was banned for 19 years by a president who argued that he needed to keep tribal divisions in check.

According to final results announced Saturday by the Electoral Commission chairman, 92.5 percent of voters cast ballots in favor of allowing multiparty politics after nearly two decades of President Yoweri Museveni’s so-called “no-party democracy” in the East African nation.

About 47 percent of Uganda’s 8.5 million registered voters participated in the referendum Thursday, said the chairman, Badru Kiggundu.

No minimum turnout was required to make the referendum valid.