North Korea threatens to restore nuclear reactor

North Korea threatens to restore nuclear reactor

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea escalated its renewed confrontation with the U.S. on Friday, saying it is moving to restore a nuclear reactor and warning it “will go its own way” because Washington refuses to remove it from the U.S. terror blacklist.

The announcement was the communist regime’s first confirmation it has started undoing the dismantlement of its nuclear program begun last November under an atomic disarmament deal that promised energy aid to the impoverished nation.

Its threat came amid reports that leader Kim Jong Il suffered a stroke, news that has fueled worries about instability in North Korea.

Analysts noted, however, that Pyongyang has a history of taking a hard line in negotiations to press for further concessions.

Dropping protest charges

MINNEAPOLIS — Charges will be dropped against journalists who were arrested during protests at the Republican National Convention and cited for unlawful assembly, St. Paul officials said Friday.

Mayor Chris Coleman said the city attorney’s office recommended against prosecuting reporters for the misdemeanor charge.

He said the city doesn’t know yet how many cases the decision will affect, and he said the city will use a broad definition of journalists caught up in mass arrests.

Food standards in NYC

NEW YORK — The Big Apple is trying to pare down.

New York City launched its first formal food standards Friday, mandating less frying, lower salt and more fruits and vegetables in the millions of meals city agencies serve in schools, senior centers and jails.

“All of the walking that we New Yorkers do helps us to stay fit and trim, but it is not enough — in fact, we are suffering from an epidemic of obesity, just like the rest of this country,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a news conference. “We really have to do something about this.”

Obesity and diabetes are the only major health problems getting worse in New York City, health officials said.

The rules, put in place by executive order, say each meal must fall within an appropriate range of calories, sodium and fiber.

U.S. raid kills 7 in Iraq

BAGHDAD — U.S. troops hunting for a suspected al-Qaida in Iraq militant raided a house Friday and killed seven people, including three women, drawing an angry protest from Iraqi officials that all the victims were civilians.

The U.S. military said the raid in Adwar — a Sunni town 70 miles north of Baghdad and just south of Saddam Hussein’s hometown of Tikrit — targeted an extremist responsible for suicide attacks and roadside bombings.

Neighbors and Iraqi officials claimed all the dead were from a poor family that had been uprooted by sectarian violence and had no links to the insurgency. Iraq’s government demanded that those responsible for the raid be punished.

Pastor’s wife gets custody

HUNTINGDON, Tenn. — A woman convicted of killing her minister husband two years ago was granted permanent custody of their three young daughters Friday and said she has resumed a cordial relationship with the grandparents who fought to take the children away from her.

Mary Winkler was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the 2006 death of her husband, Matthew, a Church of Christ minister, and is on probation for the killing she blamed on domestic abuse.

Winkler, who spent a total of seven months in jail and a mental institution, has had temporary custody of her daughters — ages 11, 9 and 3 — since August.

Trial adviser in new job

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — The Pentagon reassigned a senior member of the Guantanamo war-crimes trials Friday after defense lawyers, human rights groups and even military colleagues accused him of misconduct in his role as legal adviser.

Air Force Brig. Gen. Thomas Hartmann was appointed to the newly created position of director of operations, planning and development for military commissions, as the trials are called.

The new job takes Hartmann away from direct supervision of the prosecution. The former chief prosecutor, Air Force Col. Morris Davis, and others had accused the general of pushing for prosecutions that would captivate the public for political gain, even before the detainees were ready to be charged.

Associated Press