8A NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY OF DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2007
》 WORLD
U.S., U.N. pursue nuclear issue in Iran
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK - The bush administration moved Wednesday to cement international support for new U.N. sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programs and rebuked Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for declaring the issue "closed."
A day after a defiant Ahmadinejad told the United Nations General Assembly that his country would defy further U.N. Security Council efforts to impose additional penalties, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her top aides sought to marshal consensus on the move.
"I am sorry to tell President Ahmedinejad that the case is not closed."
said. Nicholas Burns, the State Department's No. 3 diplomat. He was to meet with senior diplomats from the five permanent Security Council members and Germany to craft elements of a new sanctions resolution.
"We're going
to keep going," Burns told reporters. "If Mr. Ahmadinejad thinks somehow that he has been given a pass, he is mistaken about that."
"We're going to keep going. If Mr. Ahmadinejad thinks somehow that he has been given a pass, he is mistaken about that."
Burns' talks over dinner with diplomats from Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany will set the stage for a second meeting on Thursday and then one between Rice and the group's other foreign ministers on Friday when the resolution is expected to be further defined.
However, he said it is unlikely that the text of a new resolution will be agreed to this week.
ministers of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — along with Egypt and Jordan, Rice heard deep fears about Iranian attempts to dominate the region, the official said.
The United States accuses Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons, something Tehran adamantly denies
NICHOLAS BURNS
State Department's No. 3 diplomat
As Burns spoke, Rice was assuring Iran's wary neighbors in the Persian Gulf of U.S. backing to improve their defenses against a "hegemonistic Iran" through proposed multibillion dollar arms sales, a senior State Department official told reporters.
The Bush administration is in discussions with the Saudis and its other allies in the Gulf to prepare arms sales packages worth about $20 billion despite concern from some in Congress that they could destabilize the region and hurt Israeli security interests.
In a meeting with the foreign
and has been encouraged in recent months by stronger statements on the matter from Security Council members, notably France.
Iran is already subject to two U.N. sanctions resolutions as well as a growing number of financial penalties from individual nations but China and Russia have been reluctant to agree to a new U.N. resolution.
Among ideas being considered for the new resolution are widening existing financial sanctions on Iranian entities and possible diplomatic measures, officials said.
ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO
Ahmadinejad told world leaders on Tuesday his country would defy attempts to impose new sanctions by "arrogant powers" seeking to curb its nuclear program, accusing them of lying and imposing illegal penalties on his country.
He said the nuclear issue was now "closed" as a political issue and Iran would pursue the monitoring of its nuclear program "through its appropriate legal path", the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks with media during a press conference in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday. Ahmadinejad said that Tehran has achieved full proficiency in the nuclear fuel cycle and warned the West that dialogue and friendship not threats were the right way to deal with Iran.
BUSINESS
General Motors, United Auto Workers make 'ground-breaking' agreement
BY DEE-ANN DURBIN ASSOCIATED PRESS
DETROIT — General Motors Corp. won its struggle to unload $51 billion in retiree health costs and improve competitiveness in
a short strike could actually improve GM's outlook because it would cut back on inventory levels.
the latest round of contract talks with the United Auto Workers, but not without a short-lived strike that wrung promises out of GM to keep jobs at U.S. plants.
The two sides tentatively
agreed Wednesday to a ground-breaking agreement that allows GM to move its unfunded retiree health care costs into an independent trust administered by the UAW. The union also agreed to lower wages for some workers. In exchange, the UAW won commitments from GM to invest in U.S. plants, bonuses and an agreement to hire thousands of temporary workers which will boost UAW membership, according to a person who was briefed
GM shares rose $3.22, or 9.4 percent, to $37.64. Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said it may raise GM's long-term debt rating, which is currently below investment grade.
The union said the agreement with the nation's largest automaker was reached shortly after 3 a.m. The UAW canceled its two-day strike about an hour later and workers were back in GM's 80 U.S. facilities Wednesday afternoon. GM lost production of around 25,000 vehicles due to the strike, according to CSM Worldwide Inc. Analysts had suggested
on the contract. The person requested anonymity because the details haven't been publicly released.
Wall Street applauded news of the deal, sending GM shares up more than 9 percent.
"We view the tentative agreement and its apparent terms as a historic milestone toward the longterm improvement in fundamentals and survival at the North American automakers," KeyBanc analyst Brett Hoselton wrote in a note to investors.
The agreement is expected to set a pattern for contracts that now will be negotiated at Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said he will decide this week which automaker will go next.
CRIME
TOPEKA — A city worker is accused of soliciting sex while on duty as a backhoe operator, but his attorney said Wednesday that police arrested him even though he turned down the advances of an officer posing as a prostitute.
John A. Murphy was among seven men, including two government employees, who were caught up in the sex sting conducted by city police Saturday.
Murphy and the other government worker, Maurice White, an officer at the Shawnee County Jail, are on paid leave while their employers investigate their arrests. White was in uniform but not on duty when he was arrested.
Undercover cop snags seven men in prostitution stake out
White, 34,
pleaded no contest Tuesday
in Topeka
Municipal
Court to a single
misdemeanor
count of soliciting
prostitution.
His sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 26, and a city ordinance mandates at least 30 days in jail. Records indicate White didn't hire an attorney, and
"Mr. Murphy has absolutely no criminal culpability in this case. They don't have any right to be entrapping people."
ASSOCIATED PRESS
DENNIS
HAWVER
Attorney
there was no home telephone listing for him in Topeka.
Murphy, 54, signed a diversion agreement Monday, meaning he won't be prosecuted if he keeps his record clean for a year, said Dennis Hawver, his attorney.
Hawver said police entrapped Murphy after he stopped to make a call from a public telephone, then arrested him for what Hawver called a victimless crime.
"God knows we don't have any murders or any serious crimes out there," Hawver said during a telephone interview. "It's absurd."
Hawver said the undercover officer walked a half-block to meet Murphy as he was making his phone call and invited him into an alley. Murphy declined and left on his backhoe, Hawver said, but was arrested two blocks away.
"Mr. Murphy has absolutely no criminal culpability in this case," Hawver said. "They don't have any right to be entrapping people."
Hawwer also said Murphy will fight any attempt by the city to fire him.
"All he did was stop to make a phone call." Hawyer said.
Police spokeswoman Kristi Pankratz said officers were conducting a sting in which a decoy waits for men to approach her and offer her money for sex. The city will decide what action to take after its investigation, city spokesman David Bevens said.
Professor Rampersad recently published the widely acclaimed and definitive Ralph Ellison: A Biography. Toni Morrison, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, observed that "Ralph Ellison's place in American literature demands a biography that is as eloquent, thorough, and wise as its subject. This is it." The book represents a flawless match of biographer and subject. In Arnold Rampersad's hands, we fathom both the burden and measure of Ellison's brilliance."
This lecture is co-sponsored by the KU Department of English
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