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Deligation to visit N. Korea to collect soldiers' remains

By TIMES WIRES
Published April 4, 2007

WASHINGTON

A private delegation working with the approval of the White House will travel to North Korea this weekend to recover the remains of soldiers killed in the Korean War.

The four-day trip will be led by Bill Richardson, the New Mexico governor and Democratic presidential candidate, and Anthony Principi, the former veteran affairs secretary for President Bush.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino announced the effort on Tuesday.

The bipartisan delegation has been invited by the North Korean government to help recover remains of missing servicemen, Perino said.

More than 8,100 U.S. servicemen still are listed as missing from the Korean War.

Missile-defense plan getting a new push

The Bush administration has begun to step up its efforts to build a controversial missile defense system in eastern Europe, launching a public push in recent weeks to counter bitter opposition in Russia and to overcome fears of a new arms race elsewhere on the continent.

The administration is seeking to place 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar center in the Czech Republic, both formerly part of the Soviet bloc.

On Tuesday, the Pentagon official responsible for overseeing the plan said that the administration hopes to dampen Russian opposition, but that Moscow would not be allowed to derail the project if no agreement is reached with the Kremlin.

"We think there is a benefit to cooperating with Russia; we think the threat is one that they face as well as one that we face," said Eric S. Edelman, the undersecretary of defense for policy, who made the case for the plan in European capitals last week.

YAKIMA, WASH.

U.S. to assess damage at Hanford reservation

In an abrupt reversal, the federal government has agreed to assess the damage to natural resources caused by plutonium production at the Hanford nuclear reservation, the nation's most contaminated nuclear site.

Such assessments typically cost millions of dollars and often preface monetary damages.

The Yakama Nation of American Indians in 2002 sued the U.S. Department of Energy, which manages Hanford cleanup, seeking restoration of soil, water, plant and animal life that may have been injured by radioactive waste. The Nez Perce and Umatilla tribes later joined the lawsuit, as did the states of Washington and Oregon.

The Energy Department had argued it was too soon to determine environmental harm or whether reparations should be paid. But the department said Tuesday that it would begin assessing damages in collaboration with two other federal agencies, the states and the tribes.

ATLANTA

Woman fatally shot at CNN building

Gunfire erupted in the crowded atrium at the CNN Center on Tuesday afternoon, leaving a woman dead and a man in critical condition in what the police said was a domestic dispute.

The man shot the woman, and a security guard for the Turner Broadcasting System, the Time Warner division that runs CNN, responded by shooting the man, the police and a Turner spokeswoman, Lisa Tobias, said.

The woman worked at the nearby Omni Hotel and a spokeswoman for the hotel chain identified her as Clara Riddles, 22, of College Park, an Atlanta suburb.

Police described the man as the woman's ex-boyfriend.

[Last modified April 4, 2007, 00:08:17]