Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Iraqi officials say no decision yet about destroying missiles BY BA^SEM MROUE THE ASSOCIATED PRESS BAGHDAD, IRAQ - Iraq’s deputy prime minister insisted Tuesday that the government had not yet decided whether to destroy its A1 Samoud 2 missiles, despite a TV interview in which Saddam Hussein appeared to reject com pliance with the U.N. demand. Both Iraqi and U.N. officials spoke of new, substantive cooper ation. U.N. inspectors visited a pit where Iraq says it destroyed bio logical weapons in 1991, and Iraq reported finding an R-400 bomb containing liquidat a disposal site. “We have made some progress. In fact, we have made some breakthroughs,” said Lt. Gen. Amer al-Saadi, Saddam’s adviser on the inspections. Iraq appeared to be sending con flicting messages over an order from chief weapons inspector Hans Blix to destroy its A1 Samouds and their components by the end of the week becaitee the missiles can fly farther than allowed. The missiles are still being produced and tested, the inspec tors’ spokesman in Baghdad, Hiro Ueki, said Tuesday. He said the last test took place Monday. In a CBS-TV interview with Saddam, the Iraqi president in dicated he won’t heed the de mand. The network broadcast ex cerpts from its three-hour inter view, with Saddam saying he did not have missiles that went be yond the range limit set by the United Nations. Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz said Tuesday that no decision on the missiles had been reached, saying: “It’s being studied.” “Readiness for the aggression is continuing... but this doesn’t mean that we should stop our po litical and diplomatic work,” Aziz said. “We should continue with it, but we should also pre pare ourselves for the battle.” AhSaadi also said Iraq was still studying the U.N. missile or der. He said he would not com ment on the Saddam interview because he had not seen it. Ueki said at a news conference that the United Nations was still awaiting an official response on the missiles. He said inspectors have com pleted tagging all deployed A1 Samoud 2 missiles, but still need ed to tag some unassembled com ponents. Ueki also said inspectors have begun to visit excavations by the Iraqis southeast of Baghdad at a site where Iraq says it destroyed bombs filled with biological agents in 1991. On Monday and Tuesday, inspectors examined munitions fragments around the pit, he said. In the CBS interview, Saddam also challenged President Bush to a live debate. But the White House said the president did not take the suggestion seriously. “This is an opportunity for him, if he is really convinced about his position, about prepa rations for war, or any other means, to convince the whole world about the reasons that jus tifies war,” Saddam said, referring to Bush. “And it’s an opportunity for us to tell the world about our reasons to want to live in peace.” U.S. warplanes, meanwhile, bombed missile launch systems in northern and southern Iraq on Tuesday because they threatened coalition forces enforcing no-fly zones, the U.S. military said. U.S. and British planes have been enforcing no-fly zones in north and south Iraq since the 1991 Gulf War. Study: Underage drinking less severe than previously thought BY LINDSEY TANNER THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CHICAGO - Underage drinkers account for one-fifth of the nation’s alcohol consumption, a study says. Attempting to correct botched statistics they released a year ago, researchers from Columbia University’s National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse analyzed three sets of data from 1999 and said underage drinking amounted to 19.7 percent of alco hol consumed that year, or $22.5 billion. The previous estimate — now discredited — was 25 percent. Consumption by adults who downed more than two drinks dai ly — defined by the researchers as excessive drinking — amounted to 30.4 percent, or $34.4 billion. “These analyses show that it is not in the alcohol industry’s fi nancial interest to voluntarily en act strategies to reduce underage or adult excessive drinking,” the researchers said. The Columbia center is led by Joseph Califano Jr., former U.S. A Kurdish peshmerga heavy gunner returns fire in Gomalar, Iraq. The small village has changed hands between the Kurdish peshmerga and Ansar Al-lslam several times in recent months. PHOTO COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS Infighting continues to ravage Iraq said. Roh won a Dec. 19 election part ly by appealing to younger voters with pledges to make the U.S. South Korean relationship more balanced. He said Tuesday that the “Korean people were deeply grate ful” for Washington’s role in “guaranteeing our security and economic development.” But he also pledged to “see to it that the alliance matures into a more re ■ ciprocal and equitable relation ship.” U.S. troops fought alongside South Korean soldiers in the 1950 53 Korean War. There are now 37,000 American troops based in the South. ment had “no intentions to devel op nuclear weapons and its nucle ar activities at this stage would be confined only to peaceful purpos es.” Roh faces a difficult task of rec onciliation with the North, which has repeatedly spurned interna tional calls to abandon its nucle ar development and demanded a nonaggression treaty with the United States. The new president also faces frayed relations with the United States. Roh has been outspoken about wanting the United States to open talks with North Korea as soon as possible and openly op poses any talk of attacking the North’s nuclear facilities. South Koreans said they hoped Roh’s political skills would enable him to manage his country’s com plicated affairs even though he is relatively new to international re lations. “He doesn’t have much experi ence in diplomacy,” said Park June-young, a North Korea expert at Ewha Women’s University. “But he certainly knows how to manage people inside Korea.” Washington, which is prepar ing for a possible war against Iraq, has said it wants a diplomatic so lution, involving other regional powers, to the North Korean prob lem. On Tuesday, Powell said he tried to reassure Roh that the United States has no intention of making military moves against North Korea. “There are no armies on the march,” Powell tions” as leverage for aid or to achieve some other goal. “Typically at times of inaugu ral festivities, most nations send flowers or bouquets or visiting dignitaries. North Korea sent a short-range cruise missile,” Fleischer quipped. He added that “North Korea will not be rewarded for bad be havior.” Roh did not mention the test fir ing in his speech. But he warned that “the suspicion that North Korea is developing nuclear weapons poses a grave threat to world peace.” With Powell looking on, Roh said North Korea could win aid from the international communi ty if it abandons its efforts to build nuclear weapons. Tensions have run high since October, when the United States said North Korea admitted having a secret nuclear weapons pro gram. North Korea’s No. 2 leader, Kim Yong Nam, meanwhile, assured the Non-Aligned Movement sum mit in Malaysia that his govern Korea CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6 cooperation on the premise that South and North Korea are the two main actors in inter-Korean relations,” he said. Roh was sworn in with boom ing artillery salutes and military bands just hours after news that rival North Korea had fired a mis sile, alarming nearby countries and sending regional stock mar kets into turmoil. Both American and South Korean officials played down the missile-launching. The missile landed harmlessly in the sea be tween Japan and the Korean Peninsula. “It seems to be a fairly innocu ous kind of test,” Powell said at a news conference before heading back to the United States. “It’s a fairly old system.” White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said the missile launch fit a pattern in which North Korea “engages in rather bizarre ac tioned at school. Representatives of the alcohol industry called the new study as faulty as the old one, and ques tioned the researchers’ definition of excessive adult drinking. The government agency that conducts the household survey, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, has estimated the percentage of al cohol consumed by youngsters at 11.4 percent. Califano’s figure is higher be cause he based it on different sources, and his research seems sound, said Charles Curie, ad ministrator of the agency. “I give them credit that they wanted to clarify the figures,” Curie said. secretary of health, education and welfare. The group issued a report last year saying that young people ages 12 through 20 consume 25 per cent of the nation’s alcohol, a fig ure based on the 1998 National Household Survey of Drug Abuse. Critics questioned the statistics, and Califano’s group acknowl edged it failed to adjust its figures to reflect teens’ percentage of the nation’s population. The new analysis appears in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association. It included data from the 1999 version of the household survey, which involved more than 50,000 people aged 12 and older ques tioned at home. It also included data from two surveys of young sters 12 and older who were ques SURFYOURSELF Read the analysis regarding drinking at Jama.ama-assn.org Go Gamecocks! Based on campus-wide survey data collected from a random sample of USC students during the fail of 2001. Funded by a grant received from the U.S. Department of Education Safe & Drug-free Schools Program: The Prevention of High-risk Drinking and Violent Behavior Among College Students Project. y Office of Student & Parent Programs • Russell House University Union • Department of Student life • Division of Student & Alumni Service* London.$442 Qnd NOT Amsterdam...$303 just online Rome.$378 Rio de Janeiro..$508 Fare is roundtrip from Columbia. Subject to change and availability. Tax not included. Restrictions and blackouts apply. (800) 297.8159 vvww.sbabravel.com TRAVEL I SI c I _ onuns »» on ths phom » on cnmpu/ » on ths /trsst 2003 SEC MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT in New Orleans, Louisiana OFFER FOR STUDEMT^, • The tournamentjwill be held in New%Neans • Cost of tickets will be $10.00 per person • Student will come to the player-guest gate and present student ID and drivers license to purchase X-* | \ \ • First 30 students will receive seats behind the band and remaining V. fx if % students | will receive seats in tKeoOOlevel oh a general admission basis • Students admitted only to the session in which their team is participating • Process will be repeated as teams advance in the tournament • For more information contact The University of South Carolina Ticket Office at 777-4274 v x \ i Y- *