Washington – Despite some friction between the allies, it was smiles, waves and picture-taking at the White House as President Bush hosted an informal dinner Thursday night for Japan’s prime minister.
Bush and his wife, Laura, walked across Pennsylvania Avenue to call on Shinzo Abe and his wife, Akie, at Blair House, the guest residence for visiting foreign leaders.
The president and prime minister planned talks today at the Camp David retreat in Maryland’s Catoctin Mountains.
Bush extended that coveted invitation to Abe as a gesture of appreciation of Tokyo’s commitment to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Some Japanese conservatives have expressed alarm at a “soft” U.S. stance on the North Korean nuclear talks. U.S. ranchers and lawmakers are demanding that Japan fully resume importing U.S. beef.
Abe’s first U.S. trip as prime minister comes as Congress considers a nonbinding resolution that urges Japan to apologize for its role coercing women to work as “comfort women” for the Japanese military. Abe sought to explain to U.S. lawmakers Thursday a comment he made last month that seemed to minimize Japan’s role in forcing thousands of Asian women into sexual slavery during World War II.
People across Asia and the United States were infuriated at Abe’s suggestion in March that no proof existed that the military had coerced women into brothels. U.S. officials now say that Abe’s recent public statements supporting the government apology in 1993 have been convincing and that Bush probably would not raise the matter.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.
MIT dean admits fudging résumé, quits
Marilee Jones, dean of admissions at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, admitted Thursday that she had fabricated her educational credentials and resigned after nearly three decades at MIT.
“I misrepresented my academic degrees when I first applied to MIT 28 years ago and did not have the courage to correct my résumé when I applied for my current job or at any time since,” Jones said in an online statement. “I am deeply sorry for this and for disappointing so many.”
Jones, 55, had on various occasions represented herself as having degrees from three upstate New York institutions. MIT officials said she did not even have an undergraduate degree.
CONCORD, N.H.
Gay civil unions set for New Hampshire
New Hampshire is set to become the fourth state to offer civil unions for gays with legislation approved Thursday and sent to Gov. John Lynch, who has said he would sign it.
Shortly after the Democratic- controlled Senate passed the bill 14-10 along party lines, one of the state’s best-known gay residents said he would use it.
“My partner and I look forward to taking full advantage of the new law,” said Episcopal Bishop V. Gene Robinson, whose 2003 consecration shook the Episcopal Church.
WASHINGTON
6,000 hogs fed suspect food to be slaughtered
Federal and state authorities have identified 6,000 hogs in at least seven states that may have consumed contaminated pet food or pet-food byproducts, and all the animals are slated to be euthanized to ensure that they do not enter the human food supply, the Food and Drug Administration said Thursday.
WASHINGTON
Ex-CIA director rips White House on war
George Tenet, the former director of central intelligence, has lashed out against Vice President Dick Cheney and other Bush administration officials in a new book, saying they pushed the country to war in Iraq without ever conducting a “serious debate” about whether Saddam Hussein posed an imminent threat to the United States.
The book, “At the Center of the Storm,” comes out Monday. It is the first detailed account by a member of the president’s inner circle of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the decision to invade Iraq and the failure to find the unconventional weapons that were a major justification for the war.
Tenet admits that he made his famous “slam dunk” remark about the evidence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. But he argues that the quote was taken out of context and that it had little impact on President Bush’s decision to go to war.
ALGIERS, Algeria
Al-Qaeda deputy dies in army clash
The No. 2 al-Qaeda official in Algeria was killed Thursday in a clash with an army patrol, the country’s official APS news agency said.
Samir Moussaab, whose real name was Samir Saioud, was killed near the village of Si Moustapha, about 25 miles east of Algiers, a radio station reported.
