Clinton: Offer to Iran stands
Says ‘we are not altering’ nuclear deal for Tehran
MARRAKECH, Morocco — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Monday that the nuclear offer to Iran, intended to restrain its potential for making a nuclear weapon, should be fully accepted by Iran and will not be changed.
“This is a pivotal moment for Iran,” she said at a news conference in Marrakech after consulting with senior government officials from several Persian Gulf nations, plus Egypt, Morocco and Jordan.
“We continue to press the Iranians to accept fully the proposal that has been made, which they accepted in principle,” Clinton said. “Acceptance fully of this proposal … would be a good indication that Iran does not wish to be isolated and does wish to cooperate with the international community.” She said Iran should accept it as it stands, “because we are not altering it.”
Iranian officials sent mixed signals on the plan that would have Tehran export 70 percent of its enriched uranium — enough to build a bomb — and have it returned as fuel for its research reactor. The foreign minister said Monday that option still exists; a senior diplomat suggested the opposite.
The warning comes days after two opposition leaders suggested they will call their supporters to the streets Wednesday, the 30th anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran following the Islamic Revolution.
Tehran’s acting police chief warned Monday against any “illegal gatherings.”
Also, in trying to mute Arab criticism that the U.S. had retreated on Israeli settlements, Clinton softened her praise for Israel’s offer to restrain new housing in Palestinian areas. While Israel was moving in the right direction, Clinton said, its offer “falls far short” of U.S. expectations.
Ship built with WTC steel arrives in namesake city
NEW YORK — The new Navy assault ship USS New York, built with World Trade Center steel, arrived in its namesake city Monday with a rifle volley salute near the site of the 2001 terrorist attack. First responders, families of Sept. 11 victims and the public gathered Monday at a waterfront viewing area, where they could see the crew standing at attention along the deck. Next week, the New York will head to Norfolk, Va., for about a year of crew training and exercises. The bow of the $1 billion ship, built in Louisiana, contains about 7.5 tons of steel from the fallen towers.
NATION
Big money on campus: College chiefs set record
A record 23 presidents received more than $1 million in total compensation in fiscal 2008, according to an analysis of the most recently available data published Monday by the Chronicle of Higher Education. A record 1 in 4 in the study of 419 colleges’ mandatory IRS filings made at least $500,000.
Topping the list is Shirley Ann Jackson at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., whose total compensation the Chronicle pegged at nearly $1.6 million.
Overall, median compensation for the group rose 6.5 percent to $359,000, and 15.5 percent at major private research universities, to $628,000. The figures essentially cover the 2007-2008 academic year.
Ruling in ’64 case gets OK
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday left in place a judge’s ruling that allowed prosecutors to charge a reputed Ku Klux Klansman with kidnapping more than 40 years after two black men were abducted and killed in rural Mississippi.
The justices rejected a plea from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to rule on whether too much time had elapsed for the case against James Ford Seale to go forward. The action leaves in place a lower court ruling that the statute of limitations had not expired for a federal kidnapping charge.
Seale was convicted in 2007 of abducting the men in 1964.
EBay halts some auctions
WICHITA, KAN– Online auction house eBay has removed items that were posted for sale by anti-abortion activists trying to raise money for defense of a man accused of killing Dr. George Tiller, a Kansas abortion provider, the company said Monday.
Two supporters of Scott Roeder posted various items late Sunday in separate eBay auctions, including an Army of God manual, an underground publication for anti-abortion militants that describes ways to shut down clinics. San Jose, Calif.-based eBay said the anti-abortion memorabilia violated its listing polices.
WORLD
KBR told to cut Iraq staff
WASHINGTON — The Army’s primary support contractor in Iraq has been warned by Pentagon auditors to cut its work force there or face nearly $200 million in penalties for keeping thousands too many on the payroll.
Houston-based KBR Inc., responsible for everything from mail and laundry to housing and meals, has increased employee levels while U.S. troops steadily leave the country after more than six years of war, the Oct. 26 audit says. As a result, the U.S. government is paying far more in labor costs in Iraq than it should as military resources are shifted to Afghanistan.
The company provides crucial battlefield services under a $33.8 billion, 10-year deal signed in 2001. KBR officials say the company has planned to cut employee levels in Iraq and is working closely with commanders there.
1.5M attend Jesus march
SAO PAULO — More than 1.5 million evangelical Christians joined Brazil’s annual “March for Jesus” on Monday, an event sponsored by a church whose leaders recently returned after being imprisoned in the U.S. for money smuggling.
Now in its 17th year, the march unites faithful from hundreds of evangelical churches. It is organized by the powerful Reborn in Christ Church.
North Korea warns U.S.
North Korea issued a veiled threat to increase its nuclear arsenal if U.S. officials do not quickly agree to the one-on-one talks that the communist regime is demanding.
The statement did not elaborate, but it was widely seen as a warning that the North will bolster its nuclear stockpile — a brinksmanship tactic that the communist nation has often employed.
THE NUMBER
546,000
Pounds of fresh ground beef, roughly estimated, recalled after contaminated meat caused a possible E. coli outbreak that killed two people and sent 16 others to hospitals, federal officials said Monday. Twenty-eight people may have become ill after eating beef produced by Fairbank Farms of Ashville, N.Y., the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported. All but three of the suspected infections are in the Northeastern U.S. and 18 are in New England. The ground beef had been distributed in September to stores from North Carolina to Maine, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s recall notice, dated Saturday.
