Austria

U.N. nuclear agency urges N. Korea to admit inspectors

North Korea must abandon its nuclear weapons program and admit inspectors to prove it no longer poses a threat, the U.N. nuclear monitoring agency said Friday.

The Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency’s board of governors adopted a resolution urging North Korea to immediately open “all relevant facilities to IAEA inspection and safeguards.”

The IAEA said it would give North Korea until March to respond. From there, the agency said, it would determine the next step, which could include taking the matter to the U.N. Security Council.

Florida

U.S. astronaut takes helm at international space station

An American astronaut formally took charge of the international space station Friday, taking over for a Russian cosmonaut who said he was going to miss his “space house.”

“We were so happy to live here, to work here,” Valery Korzun said in a change-of-command ceremony full of naval tradition.

Korzun said it was a sad time for him and his two crewmates, who will depart Monday aboard shuttle Endeavour after a six-month stay. “We will miss our space house,” he said.

One more spacewalk is on tap before Endeavour pulls away Monday. Today’s outing will be the third for the shuttle crew and will wrap up work on the $390 million space station girder that was delivered and installed earlier this week.

Iraq

U.N. teams find open gates

On the ground and able to peer “under the roofs” of suspected weapons storage sites once visible only in satellite photos, U.N. weapons inspectors have gone to work this week with brisk efficiency and found the Iraqis opening doors for them.

The true test of Iraq’s cooperation will come, however, when the disarmament teams begin to dig for answers to what they call the “open question” ” whether Iraq still has weapons of mass destruction.

The arms monitors visited seven sites Wednesday and Thursday. They resume field missions today.

Geneva

Countries suspend WTO talks on access to medicines

Negotiators failed Friday to resolve differences between the United States and developing countries over access to essential medicines. But World Trade Organization officials said they hoped to renew efforts in early December.

The United States, which wants to protect its pharmaceutical industry patents, said it remained committed to supporting poor countries’ access to drugs to fight epidemics but opposed extending an accord to other health issues.

The African group, supported by other developing countries, expressed disappointment at what it described as proposals that would narrow the accord reached at a meeting of trade ministers last year in Doha, Qatar.

At issue are WTO rules on intellectual property. The Doha meeting recognized the right of WTO members to override patents on pricey Western drugs and make the products themselves when public health is at stake.