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Wednesday, May 23, 2012 – Daily News WORLD BRIEFING NKorea upgrading old launch site WASHINGTON (AP) — Satellite imagery shows North Korea is upgrading its old launch site in the secretive country's northeast to handle larger rockets, like space launch vehicles and intercontinental mis- siles, a U.S. institute claimed Tuesday. The U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hop- kins School of Advanced International Stud- ies said the upgrade of the Musudan-ri site began last summer and reflects North Kore- an determination to expand its rocket pro- gram. such rockets could be developed to deliver nuclear weapons. North Korea on Tuesday vowed to push ahead with its nuclear program because of what it called U.S. hostility. The internation- al community is pressuring North Korea to refrain from conducting what would be its third nuclear test, following a failed attempt in mid-April to launch a satellite into space. That launch, using its biggest rocket to date, the Unha-3, was from more sophisti- cated site at Sohae on the country's north- western coast. The U.S. and other nations are worried Army being more selective on recruits WASHINGTON (AP) — Uncle Sam may not want you after all. In sharp contrast to the peak years of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the Army last year took in no recruits with misconduct convictions or drug or alcohol issues, according to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press. And soldiers already serving on active duty now must meet tougher standards to stay on for further tours in uniform. The Army is also spending hundreds of thousands of dollars less in bonuses to attract recruits or entice soldiers to remain. It's all part of an effort to slash the size of the active duty Army from about 570,000 at the height of the Iraq war to 490,000 by 2017. The cutbacks began last year, and as of the end of March the Army was down to less than 558,000 troops. For a time during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Army lowered its recruit- ing standards, raising the number of recruits who entered the Army with moral, medical and criminal — including felony — waivers the space station CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Opening a new, entrepreneurial era in space- Commercially built craft speeds toward flight, a ship built by a billionaire business- man sped toward the International Space Station with a load of groceries and other supplies Tuesday after a spectacular middle- of-the-night blastoff. The launch of the Falcon 9 rocket and its unmanned Dragon capsule marked the first time a commercial spacecraft has been sent to the orbiting outpost. Tracing a fiery arc across the night sky, UN nuclear agency chief says deal reached the rocket lifted off just before 4 a.m. and smoothly boosted the capsule into orbit. The capsule is expected to rendezvous with the space station within days, delivering a half- ton of provisions for its six crew members. It is considered just a test flight — in fact, the capsule was packed with only nonessen- tial items, in case something went disas- trously wrong — but if all goes well with this mission and others like it, commercial spaceships could be carrying astronauts to and from the space station in three to five years. ''Falcon flew perfectly!!'' billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, founder of the SpaceX company, said via Twitter. ''Feels like a giant weight just came off my back.''. warned his followers against revenge attacks targeting Syrians. Energy Agency chief Yukiya Amano, who returned from Tehran on Tuesday, comes just a day before Iran and six world powers meet in Baghdad for negotiations and could present a significant turning point in the heated dispute over Iran's nuclear intentions. The six nations hope the talks will result in an agreement by the Islamic Republic to stop enriching uranium to a higher level that could be turned quickly into the fissile core of nuclear arms. There was a possibility that the confer- ence may be delayed by weather. A sand storm closed down Baghdad's airport's Tuesday. ing differences, a deal has been reached with Iran that will allow the U.N. nuclear agency to restart a long-stalled probe into suspicions that Tehran has secretly worked on develop- ing nuclear arms, the U.N. nuclear chief said Tuesday. The news from International Atomic with Iran on probe VIENNA (AP) — Despite some remain- power and medical applications, not weapons. On Tuesday, the official Islamic Republic Iran insists its nuclear program is only for News Agency reported that Iranian scientists had inserted a domestically made fuel rod, which contains pellets of 20 percent enriched uranium, into the core of a research nuclear reactor in Tehran. Biden rips Romney KEENE, N.H. (AP) — The presidential campaign debate over Republican Mitt Romney's tenure at a private equity firm is going down the drain. Vice President Joe Biden argued Tuesday that Romney's experience doesn't make him any more qualified to be president than it does to make him a plumber. ''That doesn't mean that private equity guys are bad guys — they're not,'' Biden said at New Hampshire's Keene State Col- lege. ''But that no more qualifies you to be president than being a plumber. And, by the way, there're an awful lot of smart plumbers. All kidding aside, it's not the same job requirement.'' Romney argues that his business experi- ence with the Boston-based firm Bain Capi- tal makes him best suited to fix the economy and create jobs. Biden's fourth trip to New Hampshire this year was an acknowledgment of the state's battleground status in the upcoming election. Hezbollah appeals for calm after Syrian Powell declines to endorse Obama WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Secre- tary of State Colin Powell declined Tuesday to renew the presidential endorsement he gave Barack Obama four years ago, saying he wasn't ready ''to throw my weight behind someone'' at this time. 5B The former chairman of the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff and Cabinet member under President George W. Bush demurred when asked if he was backing Obama again. A longtime GOP figure, Powell caused a stir in Republican political circles four years ago by endorsing Obama over war hero Sen. John McCain, calling Obama a ''transfor- mational figure.'' ''Today'' show. At least, not yet. ''It's not just a matter of whether you sup- port Obama or (Mitt) Romney. It's who they have coming in with them,'' he said. Pressed to say why he was holding back Not so this time, Powell said on NBC's on giving Obama his blessing a second time, Powell said: ''I always keep my powder dry, as they say in the military.'' Joplin marks anniversary of deadly tornado massive tornado tore through Joplin, thou- sands of survivors and others touched by the storm's fury made a somber march through some of the hardest-hit neighborhoods in a town dedicated to remembering its losses but also committed to what is certain to be a long, slow recovery. JOPLIN, Mo. (AP) — A year after a Lebanon's Shiite militant group Hezbollah appealed for calm Tuesday after people blocked roads and burned tires in Beirut to protest the kidnapping of 11 Lebanese Shi- ites in neighboring Syria. The abductions in Syria's northern Aleppo province threatened to ignite dangerous sectarian tensions and fueled fears that Lebanon is getting drawn into the chaos next door. rebels kidnap 11 BEIRUT (AP) — The leader of ing T-shirts bearing the names of friends and loved ones among the 161 tornado victims, they walked through the town where a tor- nado packing 200 mph winds killed 161 people. The tornado wiped away entire neighborhoods in the city of 50,000, destroyed Joplin's only public high school and left behind a ghastly moonscape of block after city block of foundations wiped clean of their structures. ''There is not a handbook out there that says, 'Here's how you develop a communi- ty that has an 8-mile-long, 25 to 30 city- block wide swath of area that has basically lost everything,''' said David Wallace, a Texas developer whose firm was hired by the city to oversee Joplin's rebuilding plan. He estimated the recovery will cost nearly $2 billion, about half of which has already been pledged by private sources. Signs of the challenges ahead were plen- tiful on the 4-mile ''Walk of Unity,'' from the glaring absence of century-old trees in the city's central neighborhoods to the ghostly shell of St. John's Regional Medical Center. Carrying small American flags and wear- workers, volunteers and politicians gathered across the disaster zone to mark the May 22, 2011, tornado, mixing somber remem- brances with steely resolutions to rebuild. Throughout the day, residents, hospital The Lebanese were on their way home from a religious pilgrimage in Iran when Syrian rebels intercepted their vehicles, Syria's state-run SANA news agency said. The rebels abducted the 11 men and a Syri- an driver. The women were released. Lebanese security officials confirmed the kidnapping. As the news of the kidnappings spread, residents of the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Shiite area, took to the streets and burned tires and blocked roads in protest. The leader of Hezbollah, a strong ally of the Syrian regime, appealed for calm and killed in Santa Monica LOS ANGELES (AP) — Police shot and killed a mountain lion that somehow made its way through an urban landscape before it was found early Tuesday in a downtown Santa Monica office building courtyard near an outdoor mall and a blufftop park that offers tourists views of the ocean and the city's famed pier. 'Young mountain lion Authorities made multiple attempts to try and subdue the young male cat, including use of a tranquilizer and a pepper ball, before killing it, said Capt. Daniel Sforza of the state Fish and Game Department.