World briefs

By Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published September 23, 2000

Proposal gives U.N. control of holy sites

JERUSALEM -- A proposal to break the deadlock over Jerusalem's Jewish and Muslim holy sites by putting them under U.N. sovereignty is being discussed anew by the United States, France, Egypt and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, according to press reports and the Boston Globe, citing a Western diplomat close to the peace process.

The proposal calls for a 35-acre plot of land in Jerusalem's Old City -- referred to by Jews as the Temple Mount and Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary -- to be placed under the legal authority of the U.N. Security Council.

The Globe reported that Israel is considered likely to accept the proposal as a way around the current stalemate in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. However, senior Palestinian spokesmen warned they intend to reject the proposal out of hand and will continue to insist on full control over Noble Sanctuary, or Haram al-Sharif, and all of East Jerusalem, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Cut military spending, U.S. warns North Korea

TOKYO -- North Korea's military has increased its combat readiness in the past year, and Pyongyang must reverse that course if it hopes to continue receiving economic aid from the United States and South Korea, U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen warned Friday.

"Reciprocity is the key," Cohen told reporters before holding a meeting with Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori to wrap up a six-nation tour of Asia. "It cannot be a one-way street."

North Korean troops "are more prepared than they were a year ago," Cohen said. "They are doing more training today than they did last year. They have more forward-deployed artillery pieces than ever before" and continue to ground-test short- and long-range missile systems.

He said the United States could not continue to permit economic assistance to the North Korean people "without some accompanying reduction in military tensions" along the Demilitarized Zone dividing North and South Korea.

Duvalier wants to return to Haiti, report says

NEW YORK -- Ousted Haitian dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier says he wants to return to power in his troubled country, Newsday reported Thursday.

"I am working to get back to Haiti," the newspaper quoted Duvalier as saying from his home in exile in Paris. "That is my goal."

Newsday said the interview was arranged by the Haitian Center for Economic and Social Development, which claimed it has supporters who want Duvalier to return.

Duvalier, 49, fled a popular uprising in 1986.

Wreck of 'Carpathia' intact on Atlantic floor

HALIFAX, Nova Scotia -- The wreck of Carpathia, the ship that rescued passengers from the Titanic, is intact and sitting upright at the bottom of the Atlantic, according to video images released Friday.

The wreck, which was found May 27, rests in 500 feet of water 120 miles south of Fastnet, Ireland.

The Carpathia was the first ship on the scene after the Titanic sank in 1912. Its crew pulled 705 men, women and children from lifeboats bobbing in the icy water.

On July 17, 1918, during World War I, the Carpathia was traveling in a convoy from England to Boston when it was sunk by torpedoes from a German U-boat. Five crew members died; the rest were rescued.

At a news conference in Halifax, the documentary film company Eco-Nova productions presented film showing the Carpathia was intact and sitting upright at the bottom of the sea.

The search was funded largely by fiction author Clive Cussler. He has used the royalties from his books, including Raise the Titanic, to fund expeditions to find and preserve shipwrecks.

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