NATION IN BRIEF

Thursday, January 12, 2006

S. Korean Denied Bail In Oil-for-Food Scandal

HOUSTON -- A South Korean businessman accused of accepting millions of dollars from Iraq in the U.N. oil-for-food scandal was denied bail Wednesday and will be transferred to New York to face additional charges. Tongsun Park, 70, was arrested in Houston on Friday after being expelled from Mexico.

New charges accuse Park of agreeing in October 1992 to work on behalf of the Iraqi government with another person who is now cooperating with U.S. authorities.

Park, a South Korean citizen, was charged in April with accepting millions from the Iraqi government while he operated in the United States as an unregistered agent for Iraq's oil-for-food program, but Park failed to respond to a U.S. warrant.

Augustine Volcano Erupts in Alaska

ANCHORAGE -- Augustine Volcano, a conical-shaped peak 171 miles southwest of Anchorage, erupted with an ash cloud that rose 30,000 feet above sea level, officials said.

The eruption followed months of elevated seismic activity at the island volcano and was no surprise, said Chris Waythomas, a U.S. Geological Survey geologist working at the federal-state Alaska Volcano Observatory. As of midday, there had been no reports of ash reaching any of the coastal communities near the 4,134-foot volcano.

Augustine, the most active of the volcanoes in southern Alaska's Cook Inlet region, previously erupted in 1986 and 1976. If the current activity is similar to those events, it is likely that there will be a series of eruptions before the volcano becomes quiet again, Waythomas said.

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· BUCKHANNON, W.Va. -- The operator of the Sago Mine said the company spent heavily on safety improvements in the months before an explosion that led to the deaths of 12 miners. Ben Hatfield, chief executive of International Coal Group Inc., said the company rebuilt two miles of primary escapeway, upgraded the mine's rail transportation system and implemented employee safety training that exceeded legal rules.

· LAFAYETTE, Ga. -- A missing Navy jet with four aviators aboard was found, more than 24 hours after it failed to make its scheduled landing at Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida after a low-level bomb training mission, the Civil Air Patrol said. CAP Capt. Paige Joyner said the fate of the crew was not known.

·SHELBYVILLE, Tenn. -- A 7-year-old boy put on his seat belt and remembered to use his turn signal as he took his parents' pickup truck for a ride, leading police on a slow pursuit around town. The boy, nine years too young to take his license test, was charged with driving without a license and eluding police. He will face a hearing later this week in juvenile court.

· Ali Hamza al Bahlul, a Yemeni accused of being a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden, went before a U.S. military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and said he would boycott his war crimes trial because he did not recognize the tribunal's authority. "There's going to be a tribunal of God on the day of judgment," Bahlul told the court. "Do what you have to do to me, however you have to rule. . . . God will rule based on justice."

· BUTLER, Ga. -- Plaques that separately list local blacks and whites who served in World War II will stay in the county courthouse, but a sign explaining the history of segregation will be added to help put the display in context.

· RALEIGH, N.C. -- A 65-year-old Florida man held since August on a charge that he deserted the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War was released from the Camp Lejeune brig and will be discharged, a base spokesman said. Jerry Texiero was accused of deserting Camp Pendleton, Calif., in 1965. Texiero, living under an alias, was arrested and jailed in Florida in August after a fingerprint match.

-- From News Services