North Korea Nuclear Forum Drafts Disarmament Plan (Update2)

The six-nation forum trying to end North Korea's nuclear program will try to draft a declaration today laying out steps for disabling all atomic plants in the communist country by the end of this year.

The text ``would be a road map for the rest of this calendar year,'' Christopher Hill, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian affairs, said late yesterday in Beijing. All delegations agreed to the year-end deadline, he said.

Negotiators are working on a statement laying out the specifics of the disablement plan. They will hear a report today from nuclear officials from China, Russia and the U.S. who visited atomic plants in North Korea this month, Hill said.

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Musharraf Files Papers for presidentship in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Sept. 27 — Pakistan’s president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, filed his nomination papers for re-election on Thursday amid continuing uncertainty over his eligibility to compete in the Oct. 6 vote.

On Friday, the Supreme Court is expected to rule on two petitions challenging General Musharraf’s eligibility on the grounds that is it unconstitutional for him to serve as both president and chief of the army staff.

Two senior lawyers close to the case said they were prepared for the court to return a verdict in General Musharraf’s favor. But even if it did, lawyers and political parties said they were gearing up to make further legal challenges over the next week in a last-ditch effort to derail the election. An opposition alliance, the All Parties Democratic Movement, upped the ante on Thursday by announcing that its members would resign en masse from the national and provincial assemblies that will hold the presidential election.

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