Washington, D.C.

N. Korea, U.S. to renew nuclear negotiations

In a diplomatic breakthrough, the Bush administration said Tuesday it had wooed North Korea back to negotiations on the Koreans’ nuclear weapons program, though a date had not been set for reopening the long-stalled talks.

In New York, China’s United Nations ambassador said six-nation talks were likely to resume in the next few weeks in Beijing. Ambassador Wang Guangya told reporters the talks were the best way to resolve the nuclear standoff and said he was hopeful progress would be made.

The negotiations, in which the United States and four other countries want to halt North Korea’s nuclear weapons program, have been dormant for a year despite the North’s promise to meet again last September.

Washington, D.C.

Poll: Bush ignoring public concerns

A majority of Americans say President Bush is ignoring the public’s concerns and instead has become distracted by issues that most people say they care little about, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The survey found that 58 percent of those interviewed said Bush was mainly concentrating in his second term on problems and partisan squabbles that these respondents said were unimportant to them.

Underlying that finding is a continuing deep and bitter partisan divide that has fueled increasingly bitter fights in Congress, most recently over some of Bush’s nominees to the federal courts. Relatively few Americans viewed that issue as particularly important.

A total of 1,002 randomly selected adults were interviewed June 2-5 for this survey.

North Carolina

Teen gets scholarship from death row inmates

Zach Osborne doesn’t have a lifetime of memories about his little sister. He was only 6 years old, and she was only 4, when she was raped and murdered.

Their mother’s boyfriend was sentenced to death for the crime, and Osborne believes the memory of the murder will make him a better police officer. It’s a goal the rising sophomore at East Carolina University is striving to reach with help from an unlikely source – death row inmates from around the country.

On Tuesday, Osborne, 19, received a $5,000 college scholarship from the group of inmates, who solicited money through their bimonthly publication, “Compassion.” Including Osborne’s grant, they have given out seven scholarships worth about $27,000.

Florida

Defense: Suspects have no link to jihad

Attorneys for three terrorism defendants told jurors Tuesday that the men were never associated with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and had innocent explanations for comments that were wiretapped by investigators.

Federal prosecutors say Sameeh Hammoudeh, Ghassan Zayed Ballut, Hatem Naji Fariz and their co-defendant, Sami Al-Arian, a fired University of South Florida professor, worked to raise money in the United States to further the goals of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

But in opening statements Tuesday, lawyers for the three men being tried along with Al-Arian painted them as family men who were dedicated to providing legitimate charity to the needy in Palestinian territories.

Defense lawyers maintain prosecutors will be able to provide no evidence directly tying the men to the terrorist group or any criminal activity.

Iowa

Topeka seventh on list of safest driving cities

A new study shows that motorists in Cedar Rapids are the safest drivers in the nation.

Researchers with Allstate Insurance Co. analyzed two years worth of internal crash and claim data to calculate the chances that drivers in 196 of the nation’s biggest cities would be involved in an accident compared to the national average.

Allstate, which claims a 12 percent market share of the nation’s auto insurance policies, found that Cedar Rapids motorists average an accident once every 15 years, far better than the national rate of one every 10 years.

According to Allstate, the other safest cities behind Cedar Rapids were, respectively: Sioux Falls, S.D.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; Huntsville, Ala.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Des Moines; Topeka, Kan.; Lakewood, Colo.; Fort Collins, Colo.; and Birmingham, Ala.