Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 6

6A RENO GAZETTE-JOURNALR GJ.COM TUESDAY, JUNE 2004 SundownerCondos to be 'for any income level' From 1A of first-time home buyers, and will range from 330 square feet and up. "It's very hard to narrow in on what the demand is in Reno, but that's where we think the demand will be," Barmand said. "The void that we think exists in the downtown area is in ownership availability, but it could be for any income level." Barmand said he thinks the Belvedere will appeal to empty nesters, too. have a contractor on board by the end of June. The developer said he could not yet provide a ballpark of what the retrofitting of the old Sundowner will cost.

"Right now we're still doing a lot of investigation and analysis and going through the permit processes," Barmand said. He said he could foresee no delays in the project. The parking garage at the complex, with about 300 spaces, will be for residents only. But Fuss said "It will give us another set of price points within the downtown," said Pete Gillon, administrator of the Reno Redevelopment Agency. "So the price points will be a little lower than the Corn-stock, but still it's very, very favorable for our downtown, to have those different price levels." Gillon said price levels at the Comstock Hotel, another former casino resort that is being gutted for use as condominiums under new ownership, will go as high as $425,000.

When complete, the the buildings' location near the officially designated Virginia Street transportation corridor allows it to have more off-site parking privileges as well for customers of a would-be restaurant, for example. Fuss said the small swimming pool in the back would stay, with a possible gym for residents added. Barmand is buying the Sundowner from owners George Karadanis and Bob Maloff, who closed the resort Nov. 9, displacing 375 employees. Comstock will have 150 units and be renamed the Riverwalk Condominiums.

Also, a Denver developer just began construction on 96 new condominiums at First and Sierra streets to be called The Palladio. There is a waiting list for potential buyers of those condos. Barmand said he plans to start advertising for the Belvedere shortly after taking full control of the property next month. He said he is interviewing local construction companies and expects to KoreaTroop reduction to provide flexibility to U.S. military 1 From 1A provide some much needed flexibility for a military straining to meet its commitments in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the globe.

"We don't have a troop to waste," said one senior defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "We don't want to be anchored in any one place. We want to be able to move to where we need to get to." The move is part of a sweeping plan by the Pentagon to reposition U.S. forces around the world to be closer to areas it considers unstable while cutting the U.S. presence in Cold War-era strongholds such as Germany.

The plan is also geared at lowering the U.S. military's profile in areas where its presence has provoked resentment and become a troublesome political problem, such as Seoul and the Japanese island of Okinawa. The majority of the U.S. troops guarding South Korea have traditionally been considered untouchable by the Pentagon for de- Cloyment to other trouble spots ecause of the risk of attack from communist North Korea's 1.1-million member military. Under the agreement that has kept U.S.

troops there since the ena of the Korean War in 1 953, those forces have maintained a focus on just one contingency an attack on the South by North Korea. The last significant troop reduction in South Korea was in 1971, when the number of U.S. soldiers stationed there was cut from 63,000 to 43,000. In 1992, another 5,000 troops were pulled out. But Defense Secretary Donald H.

Rumsfeld has been pushing for more flexibility to deploy troops rapidly to react to conflict around the world. Pentagon officials say that South Korea's army, with nearly 700,000 well-trained troops, has adequate ground capability for the country's defense as long as it is backed by advanced U.S. air and naval power. Pentagon officials have argued that the limited numbers of U.S. ground troops on the Korean peninsula would be little more than a "trip wire" should another conflict break out between the two Koreas, and have said repeatedly that reductions to the troop presence in Korea should be expected.

"This is about psychology," said Derek Mitchell, former Pentagon special assistant for Asian and Pacific affairs. "It's not about the 12,000 troops per se because Mm Yoii9-o Associated Press DEMONSTRATORS: A South Korean military policeman stands guard as protesters demand the withdrawal of U.S. troops during a rally Monday before the start of a meeting between South Korean and United States military officials in Seoul. Haitian Girl is not an orphan From 1 A Carpenter said Shedelande is not an orphan but her motherwas unable to care for her in Haiti, an impoverished Caribbean country troubled for decades by political upheaval, including a recent overthrow of the government. An ecosystem restoration consultant, Carpenter first met Shedelande in 2003 when she was working as a volunteer checking the lead content in water pipes at an orphanage.

Shedeknde wouldcometoplay with the children there and became friends with Carpenter's youngest daughter, Thuy, who had accompanied her mother on the trip. Carpenter had vowed not to adopt another child, but after she returned to Nevada, the little girl's memory haunted her. "It was just her spirit and her joy, and there was just something about her," the 47-year-old Carpenter said. "She just really touched us. When I got home, I couldn't stop thinking about her.

Finally, she contacted the or- f)hanage and asked if they could ocate Shedelande. They found her and Carpenter arranged for the little girl to stay at the orphanage until she could bring her to Reno. Since an earlier adoption by a Canadian couple fell through, the staff at the orphanage waited until last week to tell Shedelande that she was being adopted by Carpenter and her husband. "They were afraid that if they told her and it didn't work out, this would be her second disappointment, and those kids have enough disappointments," Carpenter said. "We sent her pictures of her bedroom and what the family "We also sent her a picture of her brand new pink bicycle with training wheels." If things go as planned, this week Shedelande will join her new family, with dad Cooper, a hy-drologistwiththeDesert Research Institute, brothers Kristopher, 25, and Nathan, 21, and sisters Hannah, 8.

Carpenter said Nathan is going to Haiti with her but will remain there through the summer doing volunteer work at God's Littlest Angels, the orphanage and clinic run by Dixie Bickel, an American registered nurse, and her husband, John. Carpenter and her son are going to Haiti despite a travel warning issued May 25 by the U.S. State Department advising Americans to defer travel plans to Haiti because the situation there "remains unpredictable and potentially dangerous" since a rebel uprising and ouster of Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. "It'salittledisconcerting," Carpenter said. "We had to get approval from the U.S.

Embassy and register with them so they know where we are in case of trouble." Jowell Laguerre, a vice president at Truckee Community College and a nativeof Haiti, said families there who cannot afford to care for their children often put them with well-to-do families where they work as servants in return for their room and board. "Shedelande has a great opportunity for a life she couldn't have had otherwise," Laguerre said. "I think to those who have experienced the very positive side of the American people, we can only say that this little girl will give the Carpenters as much love as they will give her." After the violence erupted earlier this year in Haiti, a newspaper story about Carpenter and her husband's efforts to get Shedelande out of the country brought offers of help from local residents, Carpenter said. A number of people who speak French haveofferedtoact as translators when Shedelande comes to her new home. And Laguerre has put Carpenter in touch with some local Haitian families so Shedelande can retain ties to her roots.

"It's so hard for a child, no Carpenter said. "So in order to help her make that transition from Haitian culture to America and Reno, it will be nice to be able to call up these other Haitian families at night if she's crying and say, What's she Those families also are willing to share Haitian recipes, nursery rhymes and stories that Shedelande would have grown up with, Carpenter said. "Familiar sights and sounds and smells are so important," she said. "It was just very nice of these people to offer their help. Reno is a really small community and you don't nave to ask people for help.

They just step forward and give it," ADOPTION GROUP Patty Cronan, a member of the unnamed group of parents who have adopted children from other countries, can be reached by e-mail at papc7yahoo.com. when you look at it in purely military terms, we have trie capabilities to do what we need to do. The ground troops largely are symbolic." Reducing the number of U.S. troops in South Korea, or at least their visibility, could also serve to remove a major irritant. The troops' presence has been controversial among South Koreans for years, and the deaths of two girls run over by a U.S.

military vehicle two years ago year inflamed anti-American sentiment. Asked last week whether the United States planned such a move, Rumsfeld told reporters: "We will not weaken the deterrent or the defense capabilities that we have, even though numbers and locations may shift and evolve as technologies advance and as circumstances change." News of the cuts appear to have taken the South Korean government by surprise. There has been much public fretting in Seoul lately about the psychological impact of U.S. troop reductions on financial markets and the economy and about North Korea's ongoing de- cuts are proof of a weakening U.S.-Korean alliance as a result of the left-of-center government of President Roh Moo Hyun. "There was this binge of populist, nationalist anti-Americanism and now they are paying the consequences," said Lee Chung Min, an international relations specialist at Seoul's Yonsei University and a frequent critic of the current South Korean government.

He said that South Koreans fear a weakening of their economy similar to the economic downturn caused by the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the Philippines. Pentagon officials said that working out the details of the withdrawal could take weeks or months. Among other matters, the South Korean government wants to ensure that $11 billion worth of "enhancements" to U.S. military capabilities on the peninsula would continue to be put in place.

Those improvements include the deployment of tactical unmanned aerial vehicles, as well as improved command, control and communications devices and modernized computer systems. Associated Press file TROOPS: U.S. soldiers of the 2nd Infantry Division walk during exercises in Paju, South Korea, north of Seoul. velopment of nuclear weapons. Kim Sook, the head of the Korean foreign ministry's North American division, gave no indication of the off iciafSouth Korean response to the proposal.

"That is what the United States presented as their plan and we are going to discuss it," Sook said. South Korean officials quoted in the media in Seoul have said they are pleading with the United States to delay the reduction until 2007. Among some South Koreans, there is a sense that the U.S. troop IraqOfficial says radical cleric's militia not cooperating with process 1 13 0 From 1A fact that most are controlled by groups that are part of the new government. "We want to disband the Badr Brigade and to enable its members to join the new Iraqi army and police forces and serve the new Iraq," said Dr.

Haitham al-Husseini, a top official in the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, which controls the Badr Brigade, a Shiite group. Jassim al-Hilfi, a member of the central committee of the Iraqi Communist Party, said his group was willing to disband its armed components because "we want to be part of the new Iraq." Also Monday, roadside bombs killed an American soldier south of Baghdad and wounded three civilians working for a British security firm in the northern city of Mosul, authorities said. The attacks came after a weekend in which five civilian workers including two Americans were killed in two separate shootings. Under the interim constitution adopted in March, armed groups outside government control will be banned as of June 30 when power transfers from the U.S.-run occupation authority to the new interim administration. Coalition officials said the agreement announced Monday makes The agreement also does notcov-er the brigade organized by the U.S.

Marines to take control of the Sun-ni city of Fallujah after the end of the three-week siege in April. U.S. officials described the Fallujah brigade as "a special auxiliary unit" under the nominal control of the Marines. Most of the militias covered by the agreement were organized to fight Saddam. Under the program, the estimated 100,000 fighters will be treated as veterans eligible for government benefits including pensions and job placement programs depending on their time in service.

Others, includingthe peshmerga fighters of the two main Kurdish parties the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan and the Kurdish Democratic Party will be integrated into the police, army and border security force. Officials of both parties are members of the new government. Participating militias will hand in their weapons to the Ministry of Interior. Those fighters who join government security services or job training programs will do so as individuals rather than as units, coalition officials said. The program will cost about $200 million, with the disbanding of the militias to be completed next year.

"We agreed that the peshmerga will enter the Iraqi army and the border forces of Kurdistan," said Araz Sheikh Zin ji of the PUK in Su-laimaniyah. "We agreed with what Dr. Ayad Allawi said." The Kurdish units are believed to number about 75,000 fighters based in areas of northern Iraq that have been under Kurdish control since 1991. The other major militia covered by the agreement is the Badr Brigade. The remainder of the fighters covered by the agreement come from militias of AUawi's Iraqi National Accord, the Iraqi National Congress, the Shiite Dawa party, the Iraqi Islamic Party, Iraqi Hezbollah and the Iraqi Communist Party.

Abolition of the armed militias had been a goal of the occupation authority since the collapse of Saddam's regime. However, little progress had been made because of the precarious security situation in Iraq. The Supreme Council balked at disbanding the Badr Brigade after its leader, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, was assassinated last year in Na-jaf. And the Kurdish parties insisted they needed the pesnmergas, who fought alongside American troops last year, as protection against Saddam loyalists and terrorists. Skam BaWwiaAssociated Press GOVERNMENT: Iraqi Prime Minister lyad Allawi, center, stands with government ministers Monday as he speaks to members of the press in Baghdad, Iraq.

Allawi announced a deal to disband the ethnically divided country's powerful militias. the ban effective immediately. Some of the nine militias have effectively dissolved already, and others, notably two Kurdish groups, have been allied with the Americans for years. The occupation authority had been preparing the plan to abolish militias for months. But the announcement was made by Allawi in what appeared to be a move to enhance his stature.

Al-Sadr's al-Mahdi Army was excluded because it did not want "to work within the political system, within the political process," one coalition official said on condition of anonymity. U.S. officials want to disband the al-Mahdi Army and arrest al-Sadr for the April 2003 murder of a rival cleric, although authorities have deferred both goals to reduce tensions in the Shiite heartland south of Baghdad. Instead, the coalition has opted to let Allawi, himself a Shiite, and Shiite clerics deal with al-Sadt Al-QaidaTravel industry has been on high alert for a long time, agency says statement from al-Qaida, we are certainly not going to change the way we do business," said Steve Loucks, a spokesman for the Plymouth, company. "We definitely believe this government is working to strengthen and secure our skies." State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli noted that existing U.S.

travel warnings call attention to possible threats to commercial aviation in Saudi tacked a complex housing oil workers in the eastern city of Khobar, killing 22 people, most of them foreigners. During that assault claimed by al-Qaida the gunmen reportedly separated out and spared Muslims and Arabs and killed non-Muslims. Previous bombings by al-Qai-da that killed Muslims raised an outcry in Saudi Arabia against the terror network. From 1 A bases and means of transport, especially Western and American airlines, will be the direct targets of our next operations in the path of holy war especially in the near future." The world's second-largest travel firm, Carlson Wagonlit Travel said such threats are not new and the industry had already upgraded its security. "If in fact this is a legitimate Arabia and urge Americans to take that into account when making their travel plans.

The Internet statement warns all Muslims to avoid "contact with the American and Western crusaders and all non believers in the Arabian peninsula." Muslims should stay away from Americans and Westerners "in their homes, compounds, movements and means of transport in all shapes and forms." The statement said the warning aimed to spare Muslim blood. "We act only to protect them, their religion, honor and life," the statement said. Militants have stepped up attacks on foreigners in Saudi Arabia in past weeks, most recently in a shooting Sunday that killed an Irish cameraman and wounded a British Broadcasting Corp. reporter. On May 29, gunmen at- 4.