UPI NewsTrack TopNews - August 29, 2007
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Wed, 29 Aug 2007 02:05:02 GMT |
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Aug. 28
Craig: 'I'm not gay'
BOISE, Idaho, Aug. 28 U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, denying he signaled a desire for sexual contact in an airport men's room, said Tuesday he's not gay.
The 62-year-old Idaho Republican was arrested June 11 at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport by an undercover officer who said he recognized Craig's foot tapping next to his foot in the adjacent stall as a sign he wanted to engage in "lewd conduct." Craig pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct this month and the case became public Monday when reported by Roll Call, a Washington newspaper.
Craig, a married conservative with a high ranking from the Family Research Council, maintains the incident was all a misunderstanding and that he made a mistake by pleading guilty in hopes it would all go away. He asked his constituents to forgive him but lashed out at the Idaho Statesman for doggedly trying to determine whether he is gay, Fox News reported Tuesday.
"For eight months leading up to June 11 my family and I had been relentlessly and viciously harassed by the Idaho Statesman," Craig said at a news conference in Boise, Idaho. "Let me be clear: I am not gay. I never have been gay."
Baku building collapse kills at least 2
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Aug. 28 A 16-story building under construction in Baku, Azerbaijan, collapsed Tuesday, killing at least two workers and injuring three more, authorities said.
Emergency Situations Ministry officials said the search would continue through the night for another four or five workers thought to be under the debris, while Baku prosecutor Aziz Sidov said the number trapped could be as high as seven or eight, Itar-Tass reported. Heavy machinery was being implemented to clear out the rubble as ambulances stood by.
Kamil Bagirov, chief of the ministry's civil defense department, said the initial theory was the accident resulted from "the flagrant violation of safety rules in the construction process." Two executives of the Mutafakkir company, which was constructing the building, were taken into custody.
Nearby residents told Itar-Tass the unfinished building looked shaky and had numerous cracks in the walls.
"A huge crack formed in the building shortly before the accident and it went down," one witness said.
Lugar calls for extension of START-I
MOSCOW, Aug. 28 U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar called for the extension of the START-I treaty on nuclear missiles at a Moscow roundtable Tuesday.
The treaty, which expires in 2009, was between the United States and the Soviet Union. Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan remain parties to it.
The Indiana Republican also said the United States and Russia should move toward giving up all nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, the RIA Novosti news agency reported.
Col. Gen. Yevgeny Maslov, a retired Russian army officer, said nuclear weapons stockpiles could get into the hands of terrorists.
"Disarmament is continuing, the Cold War is behind, and we still count arsenals by the thousands," Maslov said.
Lugar said the verification process in START-I must be extended and additional verification procedures written into the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty, which presidents George Bush and Vladimir Putin signed in 2002.
Olmert, Abbas meet in Israel
JERUSALEM, Aug. 28 Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas joined Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for talks Tuesday at Olmert's official residence.
The session came in advance of a U.S.-sponsored conference on the future of Palestine, Ynetnews reported.
Saeb Erekat, head of the Negotiations Affairs Department of the Palestine Liberation Organization, said the two leaders did not get into details of issues such as the borders of an independent Palestinian state or the status of refugees, the Kuwaiti news agency KUNA said.
"I do not want to belittle the negotiations but also I do not want to raise expectations," Erekat said.
Olmert and Abbas have been holding a series of meetings before the conference, which is scheduled for November. Three weeks ago, the two leaders talked in Jericho on the West Bank.
Copyright 2007 by UPI
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