NATO snub over name prompts Macedonia exit
BUCHAREST, Romania, April 3 (UPI) -- Delegates from Macedonia walked out of the NATO summit Thursday in Romania after Greece blocked the republic's entry into the alliance over a name dispute.
"We are here today to announce that we are leaving the summit. We feel necessary to be with our people today," Macedonian Foreign Minister Antonio Milososki told media outlets, including The Times of London, in Bucharest.
The former Yugoslav republic was told by NATO it met criteria for membership. Greece however, blocked its membership application, objecting to the country's use of the name Macedonia, the same name as the Greek province where Alexander the Great was born. "We are not being punished because we have failed to meet the standards demanded by NATO for membership (in) the alliance," Nikola Dimitrov, security adviser to Macedonia's prime minister, told the Times. "We are being punished because of who we are and because we're Macedonians."
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer expressed disappointment that the republic wouldn't be admitted now but added negotiations would continue to try to resolve the matter quickly.
The country joined the United Nations in 1993 under the provisional name Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, pending a resolution of the dispute.
Al-Qaida's No. 2 defends civilian deaths
CAIRO, April 3 (UPI) -- Al-Qaida's second in command, believed hiding in Pakistan, says the far-flung terrorist network does not kill innocent people on purpose.
Ayman al-Zawahiri, in answer to questions in an interview released by a radical Islamist Web site, said further that Osama bin Laden, the al-Qaida leader in hiding since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, is "healthy and well," CNN reported.
Questions targeted his views about Egypt, Iraq and Hamas, and referred to attacks by al-Qaida and other groups that killed scores of civilians in Muslim countries.
Al-Zawahiri said innocents killed in attacks by al-Qaida or others died of "unintentional error" or because they were used as "human shields" by "the enemy."
He defended a December attack in Algeria where 60 people were reported killed at a hospital. He said one of the targets was a U.N. building and the "United Nations is an enemy of Islam and Muslims."
FAA serves passengers, House member says
WASHINGTON, April 3 (UPI) -- U.S. air travelers are the customers for the Federal Aviation Administration and its safety inspectors, not airlines, a congressional panel chairman said.
"FAA needs to clean house from top to bottom, take corrective action, hire more inspectors and give them a safety mission," U.S. Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, said Thursday during a hearing in which whistle-blowers claimed a relationship between the FAA and Southwest Airlines put passengers at risk.
"The air-traveling public are your customers," Oberstar said. "Airlines are not."
FAA inspector Bobby Boutris testified that his concerns that Southwest Airlines inspections weren't heeded by his supervisors, constituting "dereliction of duty and should be criminal."
When it was learned that some Southwest planes had flown too long without undergoing required inspections, Southwest pressed the FAA to remove Boutris from the agency office responsible for monitoring Southwest, Boutris testified.
Another whistle-blowing inspector, Douglas Peters, said a supervisor pressured him for saying he'd report colleagues were allowing unsafe planes to fly.
A congressional investigation found Southwest kept dozens of aircraft flying without mandatory inspections. Southwest later found six of the 47 planes had fatigue cracks, the FAA said.
Dem leaders seek to seat Fla. delegates
WASHINGTON, April 3 (UPI) -- State and national Democratic leaders say they hope to ensure a Florida delegation is seated at the party's national convention in Denver.
"We all agree that whatever the solution, it must have the support of both campaigns" of Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois, read a joint statement issued by DNC Chairman Howard Dean, Florida Democratic Chairwoman Karen Thurman and the Florida congressional delegation.
The DNC stripped Florida and Michigan of their delegates at the national convention to punish the states for moving up their primaries against party rules.
While opinions may differ, "we are all committed to ensuring that Florida's delegation is seated in Denver," the statement said. "We're committed to working with both campaigns to reach a solution as soon as realistically possible."
China rounds up alleged rioters in Tibet
BEIJING, April 3 (UPI) -- More than 1,000 people have been arrested or have surrendered in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, Chinese officials said Thursday.
Those arrested were allegedly involved in riots in Tibet and in heavily Tibetan areas in China, The Washington Post reported. On the official Lhasa Web site aimed at tourists, the government said that the suspects will be tried in April on charges of inciting to riot.
While the government was cracking down on unrest, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao was urging unity and promising assistance during a tour of Yunnan Province in southwestern China.
"All ethnic groups form one big family," Wen said, as quoted by the New China News Agency. "We must be united and help each other, to prosper and make progress together."
At a news conference in Beijing, Xiao Youcai, deputy chief of the Aba prefecture government in Sichuan Province, said that more than 200 police officers and local officials were hurt during an anti-government riot on March 16. He argued that police showed "great restraint."
China blames the Dalai Lama, the exiled leader of Tibetan Buddhists, for the protests.
