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Friday, April 6,2001 1£|]C 09111 tCOCR v Page 3 U.S., China continue talks over spy plane by George Gedda Associated Press WASHINGTON — The standoff with China over a downed reconnaissance plane showed signs of easing Thursday. “We are working all diplomatic channels.” President Bush declared. Bush said he regrets “that a Chinese pilot is missing” ind that his plane is lost. At the same time, he told aconvention of newspaper editors China must alltw the 24 U.S. crew members to come home. “Tht Chinese have got to act, and I hope they do so quckly,” Bush said. Bus! spoke amid a flurry of diplomatic activity over thecrippled Navy spy plane which has been strandedon China’s Hainan Island since it made an emergeicy landing Sunday after a collision with a Chinesefighter over the South China Sea. Thetalks were centered on the captured American crew, which administration officials insisted should be released both on legal and humanitarian grounds. Still, a senior U.S. official said there was ?io assurance the crew would be released and predicted a second busy night of diplomacy. “Our message to the Chinese is we should not let this incident destabilize relations. Our relationship with China is very important. But they need to realize that it’s time for our people to be home,” Bush said. “I regret that a Chinese pilot is missing, and I regret one of their airplanes is lost. And our prayers go out to the pilot and his family. Our prayers are also with our own servicemen and women and they need to come home,” Bush said. The United States has declined to apologize for the mishap, despite Chinese demands. In the meantime, a senior U.S. official said the Chinese had questioned the American crew. American diplomats were told this when they met with the crew earlier in the week, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “In terms of what we’re discussing, I think we continue to make the point that these people, the air crew, need to be released,” said State Department spokesman Richard Boucher. When asked whether there were any circumstances under which he would offer an apology to the Chinese, and whether he was reconsidering his planned trip to China in October, Bush said: “I have no further comments on this subject.” “We’re working all diplomatic channels to effect our priority,” Bush added. “There are discussions going on, and we’ll continue to do so.” Earlier, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said it was “important to resolve this matter quickly, satisfactorily.” “There is intensive diplomacy” under way, Boucher said. The administration appeared more optimistic for a resolution of the crisis on Thursday than i t had on Wednesday. Two high administration official; >, who declined to be identified by name, said thing s looked brighter. White House spokesman Ari Fleische r characterized the U.S-Chinese talks as negotiations. Powell, in a letter to Beijing, reiterated U.S. concern and regret over the death of the Chinese pilot. At the same time, Fleischer suggested that Bush’s support of free trade relations with China, an issu e of enormous impact to the U.S. and Chinese economies, will depend on the outcome of th e standoff. “It underscores what the president sai d two days ago, that this matter needs to b e resolved in order to avoid any damage to U.S.-Chin a relations,” Fleischer said. “The president is in favor [of normal trade relations with China] and the president is taking iit one step at a time.” Scientists suspect colliding stars as source of heavy Earth metals by Chris Fontaine Associated Press LONCDN —A team of scientists said Thursdy that the origins of most of the gold, pltinum and other heavy elements on Eari can be traced to the massive explosms of colliding neutron stars, hundrds of millions of years before the birth othe Solar System. “Ttis is an incredible result,” exclaiied senior team member Stephan Rosswg after the scientists’ data was releasd. “It’s exciting to think that the gcd in wedding rings was formed far awy by colliding stars.” Iuas long been accepted that commn elements, such as oxygen and carbo, are created when dying stars explot into supemovae, but researchers have ten puzzled by data that suggests these stellar explosions don t produce enough heavy elements to account for their abundance on Earth. The scientists—from the University of Leicester, in England, and the University of Basel, in Switzerland — believe rare pairs of neutron stars hold the answer. Neutron stars are the super-dense cores of large stars that survive supemovae. They contain about as much matter as our sun, but are only about the size of a large city. Sometimes two are found orbiting each other — leftovers of a binary star system. Four such pairs are known to exist in our galaxy. The team used a supercomputer at the U.K. Astrophysical Fluids Facility in Leicester, to model what might happen if the intense gravity created by these pairs slowly forced them to spiral closer and collide. One such calculation takes the supercomputer several weeks calculate, but represents just the final few milliseconds in the lives of the two stars. It shows that as the neutron stars get closer, immense forces tear them apart, releasing enough energy to outshine the entire universe for a few milliseconds, the team said. Team member Melvin Davis of Leicester said the explosion most likely creates a black hole — a light-sucking tear in space—and ejects ash so hot that nuclear reactions take place as it races outward, mashing newly created protons into the nuclei of lighter elements to create heavy elements. European Union won’t stage protest against U.S. over global warming BY RAF CASERT Associated Press BR6SELS, Belgium — Despite outige over U.S. rejection of the intentional agreement on global war ing, the European Union said Thuday it doesn’t have plans to retaliate agaiit the Bush administration. U Environment Commissioner. Mai>t Whllstroem, said it was too soor to tfcuss sanctions, after a two-day visit to Vshington to discuss the policy rev sal that abandoned the Kyoto Prcocol, the 1997 agreement by indtrial countries to reduce carbor diode emissions. We should see now what we car do, id from there on we might have tc this, about exactly how to act,’ Wdlroem said. /allstroem held out hope that the Unid States could still contribute tc the tbate, and said any action would have to wait until after an international meeting in July, in Bonn, Germany. “We are still having these contacts. They are important partners in trade and other aspects as well,” she said. She said it remained unclear what “creative solutions” the Bush administration would be able create, but left no doubt that the essence of the Kyoto agreement would be ripped out of any U.S. government position. “Kyoto has become somewhat of a dirty word in the Bush administration,” she told journalists. “I don’t think the United States will change their mind. The kind of harsh statements made, make it very difficult to back off,” she said. President Bush was criticized by European officials for turning his back on the landmark global warming agreement. Bush said the Kyoto makes mandatory cuts on carbon dioxide emissions, and short timetables were no longer acceptable, highlighting the economic costs and the increased risks of higher unemployment. Christie Whitman, the Environ mental Protection Agency administrator, said the Kyoto treaty was unfair to the United States, but pledged cooperation in seeking technologies and incentives to address climate change. The 1997 Kyoto treaty calls for countries to agree to legally binding taigets to curb heat-trapping greenhouse gases, mainly carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels, like oil, often in power plants that produce electricity. No industrial country has yet ratified the Kyoto treaty. An effort last November to develop a plan for implementing the accord collapsed in a disagreement between the United States and Europe over trading pollution credits. Drug companies agree to help reduce prices of AIDS medications by Arthur Max Associated Press AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — Meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the chief executives of six major drug companies agreed Thursday to speed up the reduction of prices in order to control the AIDS epidemic in poor countries. The companies also agreed to consider using private aid agencies and charities to ensure the drugs reach the people who need them, a U.N. statement said. Until now, the distribution has only been available through governments. The meeting was a signal that Annan is deepening his personal involvement in combating AIDS in poor countries, before an AIDS summit this summer in New York. The AIDS fight “has become my personal priority,” Annan said. Annan supported the patent protection, which yields the profits that would allow those companies to develop new medications. At the same time, he urged them to further cut prices voluntarily in the developing world, where 90 percent of AIDS victims live. Annan praised the companies for the price cuts they had already made, and said they had agreed “to continue and accelerate reducing prices substantially,” especially in Africa. But lowering the price is only half the story. The companies said governments must strengthen their health systems and networks for distributing drugs to those who need them, said Daniel Tarantola of the Wbrld Health Organization. The meeting was attended by the director of the World Health Organ ization, and executives of Abbot Laboratories, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Glaxo Smith Kline, Hoffman-La Roche and Pfizer. Merck and Co., another firm that has announced a 90 percent price cut for two of its AIDS drugs on the African AIDS epidemic ■ More than 36 million people worldwide suffer from HIV or AIDS ■ There were 5.3 million new cases last year alone ■ An estimated 3 million people died of AIDS in 2000 market, was invited but didn’t attend, said U.N. Deputy Spokesman Manoeil de Almeida e Silva. Scorched by public criticism, manufacturers began reducing theiir prices last year in several African countries. Four companies signed agreements with Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Senegal and Uganda, under a program called Accelerate id Access. But even the lowest cost — moire than $600 for a one-year course of treatment—is more than twice the pi er capita income of some of the hardes t hit countries. The same treatment cou Id cost up to $15,000 in wealthy countrie s. U.N. officials traveling with Anna n, who arrived in Amsterdam lat e Wednesday, told reporters he had mo commitments until a dinner Thursday evening with Dutch Queen Beatrix. H [is meeting Thursday with the drmg executives was kept secret. One idea discussed at the session was the voluntary licensing by the pate: nt holders to local companies, saiid Tarantola, a senior adviser to Brundtlan d. But the companies rejected the proposi il, saying their l'aige capacities enabled them to produce the medicine at a low er cost than small local operations. In his statement, Annan called fi ar a mobilization of funds to finance ‘ ‘a dramatic leap forward” in preventii lg and treating the HIV virus that leads to AIDS. World Briefs ■ Senate GOP hopes to restore Bush’s $1.6 trillion tax cut WASHINGTON (AP) - Top Senate Republicans said they’re intent on restoring President Bush’s proposed Sl.fr trillion, 10-year tax cut to near its original size, now that the heart of his economic blueprint has suffered its first bruises. In the first real blow to Bush’s fiscal plans, the Senate tenta tively voted Wednesday to reduce the tax cut by $450 billion and distribute that money evenly between education and debt reduction. The 5347 vote came as senators continued debating a $ 1.94 trillion GOP budget for 2002 that would pave the way for Bush’s tax proposal. Minutes earlier, moderate Republican Sen. James Jeffords of Ver mont said he expected to vote against . the GOP budget “unless a miracle oc curs.” The twin setbacks ignited an in tensive effort by the White House and GOP leaders to woo Jeffords back into the fold while pumping the tax cut’s size back up. Top Republicans predict ed they would do so — and push the budget through the Senate — by week’s end. ■ Muslim rebels say they won’t behead \JJS. hostage MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Muslim rebels backed off on a threat to behead a U.S. hostage Thursday as thousands of soldiers, bolstered by he licopters and cannons, descended en a southern Philippine island in search of the insuigents’ hide-outs. Minutes be fore a self-imposed evening execution deadline, Abu Sabaya, the leader of the Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group, told Jef frey Schilling’s mother during a con versation on the local Radio Mindanao Network that he wouldn’t behead the 25-year-old Oakland, Calif., native. Carol Schilling, a 51-year-old YMCA accountant in Oakland; had come to Manila to appeal for her son’s life. The Abu Sayyaf group, which says it’s fighting for a separate Muslim home land, had promised to behead Schilling oil Thursday to mark the 54th birthday of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. ■ Israeli troops attack Palestinian security officials’convoy GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli troops fired front close range early Thursday on a four-car convoy carrying top Palestinian security offi cials who had just returned from talks with Israel on how to reduce friction after six months of fighting. The army said its soldiers were fired on first. Mohammed Dahlan, one of the three security chiefs, said Israel tried to as sassinate him and his colleagues with heavy machine gun fire. His silver Mercedes was struck by seven bullets, and a bag with personal belongings that had rested near his feet in the car was also hit. 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