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I'm Zaidee Stavely.
From Cancun, President Bush offered assistance to Iran today, after three strong earthquakes ranging from 4.7 to 6.1 on the Richter scale rocked the country early this morning. The quakes killed at least 66 people in the western part of the country and injured about 12 hundred others. Bush said the United States cares about the suffering of the Iranian people even though it has major differences with Tehran about its nuclear program.
French President Jacques Chirac announced today that he will press ahead with a contentious labor law that has sparked protests and nationwide strikes. But he said he would reduce the trial period during which employers could fire new workers from two years to one. Employers would also have to offer reasons for dismissals.
The Delphi Corporation unveiled a plan today to cut 8,500 jobs and shut a third of its plants down worldwide. The auto parts supplier also asked a bankruptcy court judge to void its labor agreements. If the judge agrees, the United Auto Workers have warned "it will be impossible to avoid a long strike." A strike could put the General Motors Corporation close to bankruptcy and hurt other automakers and smaller suppliers as well.
The European Union has extended the deadline one month for Serbia to hand over war crimes fugitive General Ratko Mladic to a U.N. Trib-unal or face sanctions. The deadline was extended to April 30 after the chief U.N. War crimes Prosecutor told officials that Belgrade was making progress in hunting down Mladic.
Jurors in the death-penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui ended a third day of deliberations today without deciding whether he is eligible for the death penalty. Moussaoui is the only person in this country charged in connection with the World Trade Center attacks of September 11, 2001. He was in jail at the time of the attacks, but prosecutors argue that federal agents would have been able to stop or minimize the attacks if he had revealed al-Qaida plans when arrested and interrogated. The jury will reconvene on Monday morning.
The biggest outbreak of mumps in at least 17 years is sweeping across Iowa. As of Thursday, 245 cases of mumps had been reported to the Iowa Department of Public Health since mid-January. The epidemic is not confined to a particular age group. Iowa state epidemiologist Dr. Patricia Quinlisk said the epidemic may be spreading into Illinois, Minnesota and Nebraska.
The New York State Commission on Judicial Conduct has recommended removing a judge in Albany who sought personal donations from lawyers who were trying cases before him. Justice Thomas Spargo apparently also gave out $5 gift coupons for gas and coffee and bought drinks for potential voters in a local campaign in 1999.
I'm Zaidee Stavely, Columbia Radio News.