EAST ASIA

SOUTH KOREA AWAITS RESPONSE FROM NORTH ON NUCLEAR NEGOTIATIONS

SEOUL, South Korea – South Korea, seeking to get North Korea to return to six nation negotiations over its nuclear weapons program, hoped for a response today from the reclusive communist country.

The rival Koreas resumed their first face-to-face talks in 10 months at the North Korean border village of Kaesong. The two-day meeting began yesterday, with both delegations returning to their respective capitals for consultations after six hours of talks.

Trying to ease rising tensions, South Korea promised a major new proposal yesterday if North Korea returns to the talks. No details were released, but South Korean media speculated that Seoul would offer aid to its impoverished neighbor, which has been wracked by famine.

South Korea provides fertilizer and other humanitarian aid to the North each year, but says any major economic aid should be preceded by North Korea’s agreement to dismantle its nuclear weapons facilities.

The resumption of dialogue between the two countries was the first potentially positive development on the Korean Peninsula since February, when North Korea claimed it had nuclear weapons and said it would indefinitely boycott arms talks until Washington drops its “hostile” policy.

– Associated Press

CENTRAL ASIA

RICE SAYS AMERICA IS ‘TRYING TO UNDERSTAND’ DEATHS IN UZBEKISTAN

ANDIJAN, Uzbekistan – Flowers dotted the streets and freshly dug graves scarred the earth across this eastern Uzbek city yesterday as residents mourned what witnesses said were hundreds killed by security forces last week – the worst unrest since the former Soviet republic won independence in 1991.

New reports emerged that violence in nearby towns killed hundreds more, further threatening the stability of the government of President Karimov, a key American ally in the war against terrorism.

The violence puts America in a difficult position because it relies on Mr. Karimov’s authoritarian government for an air base in the country and anti-terrorism support.

Secretary of State Rice said yesterday America was “still trying to understand” what happened in Andijan, Uzbekistan’s fourth-largest city, where government troops put down a prison uprising by alleged Islamic militants and a demonstration by citizens about dire economic conditions.

“This kind of problem is also going to be helped if you can get a more open political system in Uzbekistan. They really need more political reform and we’ve been saying that to the Uzbeks for some time,” Ms. Rice said. “I don’t mean that they should tolerate terrorists or terrorist groups. … But it is a system that is politically too closed.”

– Associated Press

ARMED MEN KIDNAP ITALIAN AID WORKER

KABUL, Afghanistan – Four armed men dragged an Italian woman working for CARE International from her car in the center of Afghanistan’s capital yesterday in a bold kidnapping that reinforced fears that militants or criminals are copying tactics used in Iraq.

The kidnapping followed warnings from security agencies that foreigners might be targeted in response to the arrest of a suspect in the kidnappings of three U.N. election workers last year.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the abduction of the 32-year-old aid worker Clementina Cantoni or demands for her release, police and the agency’s director, Paul Barker, said.

“Four men carrying Kalashnikovs bashed in the window of her car and took her away. They told the driver not to move or he would be shot,” Mr. Barker said.

The driver had just dropped a Canadian former CARE employee at a house in Kabul’s downtown Shahr-e-Naw district when the kidnappers driving a sedan cut off the vehicle and abducted the Italian at about 8:30 p.m., Mr. Barker said. The kidnappers then drove toward a nearby Christian cemetery, he said.

– Associated Press