UNITED NATIONS — The United States will invite 11 Arab nations, including Syria, to President Bush’s Mideast peace conference this fall, a senior U.S. official said. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was outlining the expected agenda for the meeting, including the invitation list, at the United Nations on Sunday to representatives of an international coalition trying to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the official said. In addition to the Israelis and Palestinians, those to be invited include the diplomatic group known as the Quartet — the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia — and Arab League states studying a broader peace deal with Israel, the official said.
New York: Ahmadinejad arrives
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in New York to protests Sunday and said that Iran was neither building a nuclear bomb nor headed to war with the United States. The president’s motorcade pulled up to the midtown hotel where he will be staying while he appears at a series of events including the U.N. General Assembly and a forum at Columbia University, where about 40 elected officials and civic leaders decried his visit.
Kansas: 12th victim of tornado
A man who was struck by debris and suffered brain damage when a tornado destroyed Greensburg in May has died, making him the 12th victim of the storm, his family said. Max McColm, 77, of Liberal was staying with his daughter, Beverly Volz, while recovering from shoulder surgery when the tornado hit on May 4. McColm’s grandson said his grandfather was hit in the head with a large piece of metal.
California: Gas cost dips slightly
The average price of gasoline in the U.S. dropped about 2 cents over the last two weeks, according to a survey released Sunday. The average price of regular gasoline on Friday was $2.79 a gallon, mid-grade was $2.91 and premium was $3.03, oil industry analyst Trilby Lundberg said. The nation’s lowest average price was in Newark, N.J., where a gallon of regular cost $2.51.
@3. Headline News Briefs 14 no bold lede-in:Church will remain tax-exempt
A liberal Pasadena church no longer faces the imminent loss of its tax-exempt status because of an anti-war sermon delivered days before the 2004 presidential election, its minister said Sunday. The Rev. Edwin Bacon told the congregants at All Saints Episcopal Church that the Internal Revenue Service has closed a lengthy investigation into a speech by the church’s former rector, the Rev. George Regas. In the sermon, Regas was critical of the Iraq war and Bush’s tax cuts.
Afghanistan: Italians are missing
Two Italian military personnel were believed to have been kidnapped in western Afghanistan, and police Sunday said they were searching for the pair and their two Afghan staff. At a meeting at the United Nations, Afghan President Hamid Karzai told participants he had information about where the Italians were and would pass the information to Italian authorities, a U.S. official said. An official from the Italian embassy in Kabul said the Italians last spoke with officials at their base on Saturday night during “routine contact.”
China: New spaceport planned
China is planning to build a new satellite launch site — the country’s fourth — to boost its burgeoning space program, state media reported Sunday. The facility will be located in Wenchang on the southern island province of Hainan, about 38 miles away from the provincial capital Haikou, the official Xinhua News Agency said. The site is close to the equator which makes it well suited for launches because lower latitudes have stronger centrifugal forces, reducing the amount of energy required to launch rockets, Xinhua said.
Germany: CIA officer extradition
German authorities confirmed Sunday that they have dropped their efforts to seek the extradition of 13 CIA operatives charged in the kidnapping of a German citizen in the Balkans four years ago. German Justice Ministry officials said they would not formally press the U.S. government to hand over the agents after U.S. officials made clear in recent weeks that they would not cooperate. The warrants for the operatives will remain in effect despite Germany’s decision not to seek extradition.
Greece: Quake rocks Karpathos
An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.3 shook the Aegean Sea island of Karpathos but no damage or injuries were reported, authorities said Sunday. The U.S. Geological Survey said the early morning quake occurred in the sea off Karpathos in the Dodecanese island group, some 265 miles southeast of Athens. Greece is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone areas. Two strong quakes struck the west of the country last month, but no injuries or damage were reported.
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