World briefs 02/28/03

S. Korea pledges to resolve nuclear issue

SEOUL, South Korea -- South Korea's new government pledged Thursday to seek a peaceful resolution with North Korea, despite a report that their communist neighbor has restarted a nuclear reactor at the center of a suspected weapons program.

The report by U.S. officials highlighted the challenge faced by South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun, who was inaugurated Tuesday. Roh appointed his Cabinet on Thursday, following parliamentary approval of Prime Minister Goh Kun, a 65-year-old former mayor of Seoul.

Goh said Thursday that he could not confirm the report, but stressed "one of the top priorities of the new government is try to end the nuclear issue peacefully, in close cooperation with the United States."

Cuba seizes American book shipment

HAVANA -- Works by Martin Luther King Jr., John Steinbeck and Groucho Marx were among 5,101 books seized by Cuban authorities after being shipped in by the U.S. government, America's top diplomat in Havana said Thursday.

American diplomats were told it was a "firm decision by the government" not to allow the books into the communist-run country for distribution to dissident groups, including independent libraries, U.S. Interests Section Chief James Cason said.

"They said it wasn't the books, but who we were going to give them to," he told a small group of international reporters. He said the American mission has imported similar books in the past.

Rafael Dausa, North America Director in Cuba's Foreign Ministry, was not available for comment Thursday.

The Cuban government takes exception to, but largely tolerates, the scores of independent libraries now operating across the island. However, it resents their contacts with American officials.

Amnesty: Ivory Coast rebels executed 60

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast -- Ivory Coast rebels summarily executed 60 prisoners -- paramilitary police and their children -- last year as they cowered in their cells, Amnesty International said Thursday.

Rebel officials denied the report, which the rights group said was based on the statements of 12 adults who survived the massacre.

Amnesty said the massacre occurred in the central city of Bouake on Oct. 6 during an attack by troops loyal to the government.

The loyalists were trying to regain control several weeks after the rebels seized the city from government forces, including gendarmes, the country's paramilitary police.

New European database details cigarette risks

GENEVA -- In a bid to drive home the perils of smoking, medical experts Thursday launched a database that contends cigarettes are more addictive than cocaine, kill half their users and cause huge litter problems.

Among dozens of items in the Tobacco FactFile:

Smoking is the single biggest killer in Europe, responsible for one in six deaths at the rate of 137 per hour.

Each pack of cigarettes sold in the United States cost the nation an estimated $7.18 in medical care costs and lost productivity.

Each new habitual smoker earned the tobacco industry $50,000.

The British Medical Association, which put together the Internet database with EU funding, said it was meant to present the "hard truth about the global tobacco epidemic," which currently kills an estimated 4.9 million people per year -- a toll expected to soar to 10 million in the next 25 years.

The Tobacco FactFile is meant to help provide a centralized source of information for future tobacco control activities. It consists of a long list of facts and figures, most from official sources and subject to peer review.

-- From wire reports