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North Korea Wednesday rejected an offer from South Korea on the same day a U.S. diplomat invited the North back to the nuclear bargaining table.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak proposed a normalization of relations between the two countries that share the Korean peninsula. The North rejected it, saying Lee was trying to stand in the way of settling the nuclear issue between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the United States, Korea Times reported.

At the same time, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg said the United States is willing to hold direct talks with the North, asking Pyongyang to come back to the international nuclear disarmament talks, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency said.

Steinberg said the United States is prepared to have bilateral engagement if that would bring North Korea back to the six-party talks.

“I think there is a tremendous opportunity now for them to take a constructive measure,” he said. “They’ve certainly given some indication that they understand the value of re-engagement and we would like to see them take advantage of it.”

Animal authorities in Pennsylvania said a cat found abandoned and wrapped in duct tape has gone home with a new adoptive family.

Liz Williamson, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said a few people contacted the organization to claim ownership of the cat, named Sticky after its rescue, but no one met with officers to prove ownership, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Wednesday.

“They were given the opportunity to come in and meet with our officers and prove ownership,” she said. “Only one person even set up an appointment and that person did not keep the appointment.”

Williamson said more than 100 families put in adoption requests for the cat, which was found in a Philadelphia yard wrapped in duct tape from the neck down. She said the family that adopted Sticky asked to remain anonymous.

PSPCA officers arrested James Davis, 19, Saturday on suspicion of animal cruelty in connection with the case. Officials said he was arrested by officers who were acting on a tip.

India aims to boost its nuclear energy capacity by 12,000 percent by 2050.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in making the announcement Tuesday at a New Delhi conference on peaceful uses of nuclear power, predicted that India could produce 470 gigawatts of nuclear power.

That would make India the largest nuclear energy producer in the world, surpassing the United States, which now produces 101 gigawatts of nuclear energy. India’s 17 reactors currently produce 3.8 gigawatts of power.

In the short term, the contribution of nuclear energy is expected to rise from just 3 percent to 6 percent of India’s total needs over the next decade. But by 2050 it will increase to between a third and a half of the country’s energy needs, according to the new forecast announced by Singh.

“Our nuclear industry is poised for a major expansion and there will be huge opportunities for the global nuclear industry,” Singh said, the Times Online reports. “This will sharply reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and will be a major contribution to global efforts to combat climate change.”

Greenhouse gas-producing coal-fired plants now account for 50 percent of the country’s electricity. India is the world’s third-largest emitter of carbon dioxide.

India also announced that American companies would be allowed to establish “nuclear parks” at two sites in the states of Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh under a bilateral nuclear agreement. The deal — struck in 2005 but approved by the U.S. Congress last year — lifts a ban on India buying American nuclear technologies and fuel, imposed following New Delhi’s 1974 testing of its first nuclear weapons.

Alan McDonald, an expert on nuclear power at the International Atomic Energy Agency, told the Times that prior to the agreement with the United States, India had set a target of generating about 270 gigawatts of nuclear power by 2050.

McDonald questioned how India would keep up the momentum of nuclear energy expansion through 2050. “That kind of growth for a decade is not unprecedented, but maintaining it over four decades is probably a challenge,” he said.

The success of India’s plan, McDonald said, would hinge on the cost of nuclear reactors and the price of fossil fuels, as well as international efforts to impose binding caps on carbon emissions.

India’s total power generation capacity is currently only 150 gigawatts, less than a fifth of China’s. According to the Power Ministry, demand outstripped supply by 9.5 percent between 2008 and 2009. More than 400 million Indians — over a third of the population — are not connected to the national grid.

Archaeologists in Tennessee said they have discovered items dating back to the Civil War, including a 6-pound cannon ball, on a former golf course.

The archaeologists and history experts surveying the former Country Club of Franklin said they discovered the cannon ball along with items including a hotchkiss shell, buckles, spoons and homemade bullets in sand traps at the golf course, WSMV-TV, Nashville, reported Wednesday.

History buff Greg Wade said some of the items, which were unearthed in June, appear to predate the famous 1864 Battle of Franklin.

“The cannon ball is unusual because it’s a 6-pounder. We don’t know of any 6-pound guns at the battle of Franklin, so this was probably fired in ’62 or ’63 instead of 1864,” Wade said.

Wade and other experts said they believe there are many other artifacts waiting to be discovered at the golf course.

“When you think (these items were) only taken off a few sand traps, you’ve got 110 acres out there that have not been surveyed,” said Wade. “What could come off that property?”

Lake Michigan’s food chain is under threat from an invasive fish and biologists are working on ways to keep it out of the lake, university scientists say.

A $9 million electric fish barrier keeps Asian carp from migrating between the Mississippi River and the lake and the Army Corps of Engineers just boosted the power, the Milwaukee Journal Gazette reported Wednesday. However, the giant fish are also in the Des Plaines River, which has a history of breaching its banks and flooding into the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, which provides access into the lake.

The distance between the Des Plaines and the canal is only a few yards in places and Lake Michigan is 20 miles due north.

“The biggest risk right now is the Des Plaines River, and if we get a (big rain) like we did last year, they could very well go over the wall,” said Phil Moy, co-chairman of the advisory panel working with the Army Corps to find a solution.

The fish grow to more than 50 pounds and are ravenous filter feeders, eating up to 20 percent of their body weight in plankton per day. Almost all other fish species in the lakes depend on that plankton.

Great Lakes restoration officials say they hope to receive between $400 million and $475 million in federal funds, part of which would be used to try to keep the Asian carp out of Lake Michigan.

Denver authorities say hunters discovered about 1,000 mature marijuana plants valued at $500,000 at an elaborate growing operation in Golden Gate State Park.

Law enforcement, wildlife and parks workers harvested the plants this week, and a helicopter lifted them in bundles from the remote location.

Detectives found a nearby camp, including a tent, food, clothing and sleeping bags, the Denver Post reported Wednesday.

No one has been arrested, and authorities ask anyone with information to contact the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office at 303-271-5612.

Three other marijuana-growing operations have been discovered in Jefferson County this year, officials said.

The National Zoo in Washington said the departure of a 5,000-pound hippo for Milwaukee was handled discretely with a covered crate on a flatbed truck.

Officials at the zoo said Happy the hippopotamus was trucked from the zoo Monday morning without any fanfare to avoid upsetting the animal during the 18-hour drive to Wisconsin’s Milwaukee County Zoo, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.

“It wasn’t in his interest to have him see out (of the crate), or to have anybody be able to see in,” National Zoo spokeswoman Karin Korpowski-Gallo said of the hippo.

The move came more than a year after the National Zoo said it was seeking a new home for Happy because his enclosure in the elephant house has been slated for demolition as part of renovation plans.

Officials at the Milwaukee zoo said Happy arrived safely about 3 a.m. Tuesday.

“He was in good spirits when he arrived,” spokeswoman Jennifer Diliberti said. “He started eating shortly after he was unloaded. He appeared to be in good shape.”

Copyright 2009 by United Press International

A 20-ton humpback whale carcass was towed to an island in a Virginia river Wednesday morning while officials tried to determine who is responsible for it.

The dead whale grounded during the weekend in a marshy area near the point where the Perrin River joins the York, The Virginian-Pilot reported. The carcass floated up from Chesapeake Bay into the York Estuary on the tide.

Because the carcass is not a navigational hazard, the U.S. Coast Guard is not legally responsible for it, officials said.

“Nobody has money budgeted for this,” said David Whitehurst of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. “We don’t have any idea of how much we’re talking about in terms of time or money to make it happen. With the budget situation the way it is, we might be pooling resources.”

Just getting the whale to the island involved two boats from a commercial company, Sea Tow. They pulled a line tied to the whale’s tail.

Officials at a Florida elementary school said a 7-foot alligator that wandered into the school was safely removed before children arrived.

Naples police said they received a call about a large alligator in Lake Park Elementary School at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday and a trapper from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission was sent to remove it, the Naples Daily News reported Wednesday.

“The trapper arrived very quickly and was able secure the alligator before any children arrived,” Lake Park Elementary Principal Tamie Stewart said. “Everyone was safe. We were most appreciative of everyone’s help.”

Naples police spokesman Mike Herman said an exact measurement of the reptile was not taken, but it was estimated at 7 to 8 feet long.

Officer Jorge Pino, a spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said alligators measuring longer than 4 feet are usually euthanized by authorities.

“If the gator is smaller than 4 feet its relocated,” Pino said. “Nine times out of 10, the gators that are going to be roaming around the street are the bigger gators.”

Officials said at least 75 people died and thousands were trapped in rubble in the aftermath of a earthquake that hit Indonesia, officials said Wednesday.

The quake also caused widespread power and phone outages, making damage assessments difficult, CNN reported.

The earthquake had a magnitude of 7.6, the U.S. Geological Survey said, revising downward its initial magnitude estimate of 7.9.

The quake was centered about 33 miles from Padang, the capital of West Sumatra, and was about 53 miles deep, USGS said. The quake’s epicenter was about 140 miles southwest of Pekanbaru, Sumatra; 295 miles south-southwest of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and 600 miles northwest of Jakarta, Indonesia.

“The situation is quite devastating,” said Amelia Merrick, operations director for World Vision Indonesia. “Bridges have gone down, phone lines are in total disrepair; it’s difficult for us to assess the situation.”

Indonesia’s national disaster agency said the quake downed power and phone lines in Padang.

World Vision Indonesia said it would send assessment teams to the area Thursday morning.

Indonesia’s state-run Antara news agency cited Health Minister Rustam Pakaya as saying he received reports that part of a hospital had collapsed, burying people beneath the debris.

Indonesians trying to find out more about the quake turned to the Internet, including the social-networking Web site, Twitter, CNN reported. Some expressed concern for relatives and friends in hard-hit Padang.

“Dear God, please send down your angels to hug and protect my grandpa in Padang,” read one Twitter post.

The Web site for one of Indonesia’s main newspapers, The Jakarta Globe, crashed temporarily from the crush of people trying to learn more about the earthquake, CNN reported.