In brief: Bush, Japan’s Abe warn North Korea
President Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe threatened stronger punitive actions against North Korea on Friday if it reneges on a promise to padlock its sole nuclear reactor.
“Our patience is not unlimited,” said Bush, standing beside Abe at the Camp David presidential retreat.
Eager to show that the two nations stand united against Pyongyang, Abe said, “Should the North Koreans fail to keep their promise, we will step up our pressures on North Korea, and on that point again I believe we see eye-to-eye.”
In February, North Korea pledged during talks with the United States, Japan, China, Russia and South Korea to shut down its reactor by April 14, a deadline that passed almost two weeks ago.
New York
Report: Wolfowitz broke rules
A World Bank committee investigating President Paul D. Wolfowitz has nearly completed a report that it plans to give the institution’s governing board, concluding that he breached ethics rules when he engineered a pay raise for his girlfriend, three senior bank officials said Friday.
Friday evening, the committee was debating whether to explicitly recommend that Wolfowitz resign, according to the sources, who spoke on condition they not be named, citing an ongoing probe into leaks.
Wolfowitz is scheduled to appear before the committee with his attorney on Monday morning and mount his defense, and the bank’s 24-member board of directors will convene that afternoon to discuss the report. The sources suggested that a vote by the board could come that day.
Albany, N.Y.
Friendly fire likely killed trooper
Friendly fire apparently killed a New York state trooper in a gunfight that erupted as he searched a farmhouse for a suspect in the shooting of a colleague, officials said Friday.
Trooper David C. Brinkerhoff was fatally shot Wednesday as he and six other members of the force’s elite mobile response team searched a Catskill-area house where the armed suspect had holed up.
The 29-year-old and another trooper were shot by the suspect, Travis Trim, as the two entered the upstairs bedroom where the man had two guns, but it is one of about 70 police rounds fired that officials believe killed Brinkerhoff.