National briefs 4/4

Raid on safe house nets weapons, explosives

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Police recovered explosives and bomb-making manuals during a raid this week on a suspected al-Qaida hide-out in which 16 people were arrested, intelligence officials said Wednesday.

Those arrested Monday included a Pakistani militant who provided money and explosives to al-Qaida members hiding in Lahore, Pakistan's second largest city, the officials said.

The raid Monday took place four days after a major U.S.-Pakistani police operation in Lahore and Faisalabad in which Abu Zubaydah, a key lieutenant of Osama bin Laden, was wounded and taken into custody.

Rumsfeld: U.S. will get information from captive

WASHINGTON -- Interrogators of the most senior al-Qaida figure in U.S. custody intend to draw "every single thing out of him" that might head off terrorist acts, but they will not torture him, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Wednesday.

Rumsfeld heatedly denied news reports suggesting the United States might move the captive, Abu Zubaydah, to a country where interrogators could use harsher methods of extracting information than would be deemed acceptable under U.S. human rights standards.

Zubaydah was among about 50 terrorism suspects captured in Pakistan by Pakistani authorities last week. He is the highest ranking lieutenant of Osama bin Laden taken alive in the war on terrorism.

White House ready to talk with North Korea

WASHINGTON -- The White House reaffirmed on Wednesday its willingness to reopen a dialogue with North Korea as Pyongyang accused the United States of engaging in "groundless slanders" against the communist regime.

Spokesman Ari Fleischer commented after the North Korean news agency issued an ambiguous dispatch about recent discussions with U.S. officials at the United Nations.

Contrary to some interpretations, the dispatch, based on comments by a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman, appeared to be an offer for a resumption of a dialogue with an international consortium established to build two light-water nuclear reactors in North Korea, State Department and White House officials said.

"We continue to await a response from North Korea to our long-standing proposal to meet with them on broader issues of concern," Fleischer said.

Microsoft president to resign, start company

SEATTLE -- Microsoft Corp. president and chief operating officer Rick Belluzzo unexpectedly resigned Wednesday after just over a year in the job, and Microsoft said it would eliminate his position.

The software giant also announced a restructuring plan it said would give its main business units more autonomy.

Analysts speculated that the restructuring was related to Belluzzo's resignation because it transferred many of his responsibilities to the company's seven major business units.

-- From wire reports