Beijing

New round of six-party nuclear talks begins

Negotiators early today began a second day of talks aimed at persuading North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions after the United States and China both expressed determination to make long-awaited headway toward a settlement.

In negotiations Tuesday, Washington also assured North Korea it has no intention of attacking, and Pyongyang promised to work toward a denuclearized Korean Peninsula, opening moves that also indicated a shared goal of progress.

The latest round of talks resumed in Beijing, the closest ally of the isolated, communist North, after a 13-month boycott by North Korea, which had cited “hostile” U.S. policies. Delegates struck an amiable note before the meeting Tuesday, smiling and clasping hands for a group photo. The other participants are South Korea, Japan and Russia.

No details of the session this morning were immediately released.

The chief U.S. and North Korean envoys seemed especially determined to move ahead after three earlier rounds of talks produced no breakthroughs.

“These talks are at a critical juncture,” U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill said at the opening ceremony. “We do not have the option of walking away from this problem.”

Aruba

Lake drained in search for missing U.S. teen

Aruban firefighters were draining a lake Tuesday in the search for an Alabama teenager who vanished nearly two months ago while vacationing on the island.

Edwin Comemencia, a police spokesman, confirmed that the draining of the lake across from the Marriott Hotel was part of the investigation into Natalee Holloway’s disappearance but would not comment further. A jailed Dutch youth has said he was with Holloway in the area the night she disappeared.

The draining was expected to take up to 24 hours.

Earlier Tuesday, Holloway’s stepfather, George Twitty, said two new witnesses had come forward with information about the night she disappeared.

One witness told investigators that he saw Joran van der Sloot, the 17-year-old who has been detained as the main suspect, driving to a nightclub across the road from the Marriott Hotel around 2:30 a.m. the night Holloway disappeared, Twitty said.

The witness said van der Sloot tried to hide his face with his hands as he drove to the Racquet Club with two Surinamese brothers, Satish and Deepak Kalpoe, Twitty said. The Kalpoe brothers were detained as suspects and later released.

Mexico City

State Department renews travel advisory

The State Department is renewing a travel advisory warning Americans about violence in Mexico, especially along the U.S. border, the U.S. ambassador said Tuesday.

The advisory is the third this year requested by U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Tony Garza. In a statement, Garza said more than 100 violent deaths along the border since June and the killings of 18 Nuevo Laredo policemen convinced him the warning was still necessary.

“These disturbing reports make clear that Mexico needs to do much more to bring safety and security to our common border,” he said.

The last advisory was issued in April and expires Friday.

Mexico’s government responded that it “maintains a constant fight against organized crime and has made a series of efforts to abate violence on the border.”

The past two advisories have angered Mexico, which relies heavily on U.S. tourism and bridles at criticism from its powerful northern neighbor.

Havana

Castro says power problems being resolved

President Fidel Castro said Tuesday his government was revolutionizing Cuba’s aging electrical system, asking a nation weary of recent breakdowns to be patient while his government works to fix the problems.

Summer heat in the 90s and hours-long blackouts that stop fans and water pumps and cause refrigerated food to spoil have increasingly irritated Cubans and led to reports of small, sporadic protests and scattered anti-government graffiti. While occasional blackouts are common every summer, Cubans say these are the most frequent and longest of recent years.

“We will overcome. Have a little bit of faith,” the Cuban leader said in an address of nearly four hours marking the 52nd anniversary of his revolution. It celebrated his 1953 attack on a military barracks, but he did not come to power for another 5 1/2 years, on Jan. 1, 1959.

The address before a select group of government faithful and foreign supporters inside Havana’s Karl Marx Theater was an unusually controlled gathering that contrasted with the large assembling of masses usually organized for the main July 26 celebration.

Castro said the island’s economy grew 7.3 percent in the first half of 2005, and recent attempts to depict Cuba as being in crisis were fabrications by the communist nation’s enemies.

“No other revolutionary process has been able to count on as much consensus and overwhelming support as the Cuban revolution has,” he said.