Jordan to free 4 prisoners transferred from Israel

Jordanian authorities say four prisoners convicted of killing Israeli soldiers will be freed.

The four were transferred to Jordan from Israel last year to serve 18 months in a Jordan prison. They had been sentenced to life in prison in Israel.

A police statement published in Jordanian newspapers on Friday said the four will be freed Aug. 20 _ five months earlier than their original Jordanian prison sentence.

Jordanian law allows prisoners to be freed after serving three quarters of their sentences if they exhibit good behavior.

Three of the four were convicted of infiltrating Israel in 1990 and killing an Israeli soldier. The fourth killed an Israeli soldier in a separate incident the same year.

U.N. chief wants U.S. to take lead on climate change

UNITED NATIONS - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed hope thatthe U.S. will take a leadership role in combating climate change -which he said poses as much danger to mankind as war and is likely tofuel future conflicts.

After a Thursday address to hundreds of students from around theworld, Ban was asked what he thought about the rejection by PresidentBush's administration of the Kyoto protocol, the 1997 pact thatrequires 35 industrial nations to cut their global-warming gases byan average 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

Ban said he thought there was now an "active discussion" going onwithin the U.S. government regarding Kyoto, and that he hopes thisdebate among lawmakers in the world's biggest polluter will lead tomore action.

"I hope that the United States - while they have taken a role ininnovative technologies as well as promoting cleaner energies - willalso take lead in this very important and urgent issue," he said.

Ban underscored what he said were the dangers of climate change -namely that it posed as grave a threat to the world as war.

"The majority of the U.N.'s work still focuses on preventing andending conflict," Ban said.

"But the danger posed by war to all of humanity - and to ourplanet - is at least matched by the climate crisis and globalwarming."

Metro BRIEFINGS

SCHOOLS IN RUINS: Chicago Sun-Times reporters spent months checkinginto the state of Chicago's public school buildings. What theydiscovered was dilapidation and decay. Stories on Pages 1, 12-14. CAMCORDERS ROLL: Do-it-yourself news is on the air. Lighter,cheaper cameras are turning a nation of video consumers into a nationof video producers. And the power of the homemade video image isgrowing. Story on Page 3. GOODBYE TO ALL THAT: Thirteen Chicago aldermen bid farewell to theCouncil. "I'll get over it," said the 1st Ward's Fred B. Roti. " Iwon't miss playing nursemaid to 70,000 people," said Roman C.Pucinski (41st). And an angry William C. Henry (24th) refused todiscuss it with reporters. Story on this page. HIT ON BASE: North Chicago merchants cheered the news that the GreatLakes Naval Base could receive nearly 15,000 new personnel. Thesailors would boost the local economy by getting tattoos, purchasinghot dogs, counting in the census and buying housing, but they alsowould affect the school population. Story on Page 5. COPS ACQUITTED: A Du Page County jury found Chicago police officersDaniel Thamos and Roy Kummer not guilty of the murder of a Lombardman. However, the two were found guilty of aggravated battery andface two to five years in prison and $10,000 fines. Story on Page20. FAMILY WAYS: As the definition of a family changes, someProtestants see a need to change the way the church treats them.Representatives of 14 U.S. and Canadian churches gathered here lastweek in search of what today constitutes a family. They came up withat least 28 versions. Story on Page 22. PARENTS WHO PUFF: Marijuana smoking by the older generation meanshiding from their own kids in the age of politically correctsobriety. Story on Page 25. BULL IN DUPLICATE: The Louvre in Paris is copying the OrientalInstitute's 40-ton winged bull. The museum wants to display it aspart of a reconstruction of the gateway at the throne room of KingSargon II, who ruled between 721 and 705 B.C. in what is now Iraq.Story on Page 29. VULTURE VENTURES: Turkey vultures, 20th century newcomers toIllinois, now nest throughout the state, soaring as well overWisconsin and Michigan's Upper Peninsula. When they come down,they'll eat anything dead. Story on Page 30.

Newest Congresswoman Sworn In

WASHINGTON - Former California Assemblywoman Laura Richardson was sworn in Tuesday as the newest member of the House. She replaces the late Congresswoman Juanita Millender-McDonald, a seven-term lawmaker who died of cancer in April.

"I respectfully stand today on her legacy as I reach toward my own destiny," Richardson, a Democrat from Long Beach, Calif., said after she took the oath of office from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Richardson, who once was a field worker for Millender-McDonald, won a special election in August to represent the heavily Democratic 37th Congressional District, which includes Long Beach, Carson and Compton.

With her swearing-in there's one vacancy in the 435-seat House, left by the resignation of former Rep. Martin Meehan, D-Mass., to become chancellor at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell. The party breakdown in the House now stands at 232 Democrats and 202 Republicans.

Richardson is an outspoken critic of President Bush and the war in Iraq, but said Tuesday that wouldn't be her only theme.

"My job will be to focus as much on the war in America, the war of crime, poverty, inadequate health care, failing education, crumbling infrastructure and sparse development as much as I will focus on the war in Iraq," she said on the House floor.

In the primary election in June, Richardson benefited from strong backing from organized labor to beat out a Hispanic Democrat in the 37th district, which has traditionally been represented by a black lawmaker. Demographics have been shifting in the working-class Southern California district with an influx of Latinos.

Marseille draws 0-0 with Rennes in French league

PARIS (AP) — Defending champion Marseille missed the chance to move three points clear at the top of the French league when drawing 0-0 at home to Rennes on Wednesday.

Didier Deschamps' team tops the league by one point from Lille, but it also had a narrow escape when Rennes striker Jires Kembo-Ekoko' penalty was saved by goalkeeper Steve Mandanda in the fourth minute.

Mandanda was shown a yellow card for bringing down striker Victor Hugo Montano.

Also, Valenciennes drew 1-1 at home with Saint-Etienne to drop five points behind Marseille, which has 26 points after 15 games.

Marseille's match was originally scheduled for the 11th round and Saint-Etienne's from the 13th. Both were postponed due to adverse weather conditions.

Appeals court overturns war crimes convictions of Bosnian Muslim who led Srebrenica defense

A U.N. appeals court has overturned the war crimes conviction of Naser Oric, a Bosnian Muslim considered a war hero by many in his country for fighting Serbs in the embattled U.N. safe haven of Srebrenica during the 1992-95 war.

Oric, 41, was convicted two years ago of failing to prevent the murder and torture of Serb captives in Srebrenica. But judges gave him a lenient two-year sentence and ordered his immediate release because of time he had already spent in custody.

Appeals judges say the original trial failed to establish that Oric had control over those who committed the crimes and overturned both convictions.

Report: NKorea ship suspected of carrying missiles

A U.S. Navy destroyer is tailing a North Korean ship suspected of carrying illicit weapons toward Myanmar in what could be the first test of new U.N. sanctions against the North over its recent nuclear test, a leading TV network said Sunday.

The South Korean news network YTN, citing an unidentified intelligence source in the South, said the U.S. suspects the cargo ship Kang Nam is carrying missiles and related parts. Myanmar's military government, which faces an arms embargo from the United States and the European Union, has reportedly bought weapons from North Korea.

YTN said the U.S. has deployed a destroyer and is using satellites to track the ship, which was expected to travel to Myanmar via Singapore.

South Korea's Defense Ministry, Unification Ministry and National Intelligence Service said they could not confirm the report. Calls to the U.S. military command in Seoul were not answered late Sunday.

The ship is reportedly the first North Korean vessel to be tracked under the new U.N. sanctions.

Two U.S. officials said Thursday that the U.S. military had begun tracking the ship, which left a North Korean port Wednesday and was traveling off the coast of China.

One of the officials said it was uncertain what the Kang Nam was carrying, but that it had been involved in weapons proliferation before. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence.

Tensions on the Korean peninsula have spiked since North Korea defiantly conducted its second nuclear explosion on May 25. It later declared it would expand its atomic bomb program and threatened war to protest the U.N. sanctions imposed in response to its nuclear test.

The sanctions toughen an earlier arms embargo against North Korea and authorize ship searches in an attempt to thwart its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The Security Council resolution calls on all 192 U.N. member states to inspect vessels on the high seas "if they have information that provides reasonable grounds to believe that the cargo" contains banned weapons or material to make them, and if approval is given by the country whose flag the ship sails under.

If the country refuses to give approval, it must direct the vessel "to an appropriate and convenient port for the required inspection by the local authorities."

A senior U.S. military official told The Associated Press on Friday that a Navy ship, the USS John S. McCain, is relatively close to the North Korean vessel but had no orders to intercept it under the Security Council resolution and had not requested that authority. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive issue of ship movements.

The Navy ship, a guided missile destroyer, is named after the grandfather and father of former U.S. presidential candidate Sen. John McCain. Both were admirals.

McCain said Sunday that the U.S. should board the Kang Nam even without North Korean permission if hard evidence shows it is carrying missiles or other cargo in violation of U.N. resolutions.

"I think we should board it. It's going to contribute to the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction to rogue nations that pose a direct threat to the United States," he said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

President Barack Obama said the U.N. sanctions would be aggressively enforced after talks Tuesday with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak in Washington. Obama also reaffirmed the U.S. security commitment to South Korea, including nuclear protection.

In its first response to the summit, North Korea's government-run weekly Tongil Sinbo said Obama's comments revealed a U.S. plot to invade the North with nuclear weapons.

"It's not a coincidence at all for the U.S. to have brought numerous nuclear weapons into South Korea and other adjacent sites, staging various massive war drills opposing North Korea every day and watching for a chance for an invasion," it said in a commentary published Saturday.

North Korea says its nuclear program is a deterrent against the U.S., which it routinely accuses of plotting to topple its communist regime. The U.S., which has 28,500 troops in South Korea, has repeatedly said it has no such intention and has no nuclear weapons there.