■ United States
`Fat' slur haunts Bloomberg
The widow of Dr. Robert Atkins went on national television Friday to demand that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg apologize for calling the late diet guru "fat." Veronica Atkins told the ABC television network that she was "sick and tired of my husband being always maligned and his life's work being trivialized." The mayor apparently thought he was off camera when he made the comment while eating pasta at a photo op at a firehouse earlier this week. Using an expletive to express doubts about the details of Atkins' death, he said Tuesday, "I mean, the guy was fat."
■ Libya
Nuclear evidence submitted
Libya has handed UN inspectors drawings of a nuclear weapon, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in the most concrete sign that the North African nation was serious about building such arms. "We have been shown nuclear weapons drawings that the Libyans have in their possession," Mark Gwozdecky, chief spokesman for the UN nuclear watchdog agency, said Friday in Vienna. "We have put those drawings under our seal, and they are secure." Asked about the significance of the drawings and the IAEA's announce-ment that it had them, a diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity said: "It's the first time anyone has acknowledged" that Libya entertained intentions of building such a weapon.
■ Brazil
Lula shuffles Cabinet
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva brought a key centrist party into his government on Friday in a Cabinet reshuffle which should boost his political power and strengthen social policies ahead of local elections. The changes in the one-year-old center-left government, which included the creation of two new ministerial posts and involved nearly a third of the Cabinet, should help Lula forge ahead with reforms. Lula told his new ministers he expected them to work 24 hours a day "so that we can make the changes that Brazil so badly needs."
■ Georgia
New leader takes oath
Georgia's president-elect planned to launch his inaugural weekend yesterday with a deeply symbolic exercise, taking a spiritual oath beside the grave of a king who ruled at a time of power and prosperity nearly 1,000 years ago. Mikhail Saakashvili, the young and energetic anti-corruption crusader who was elected this month after leading protests that brought down longtime president Eduard Shevardnadze in November, is to be sworn in today in the capital, Tbilisi, his hand on the constitution.
■ Iran
Terror suspects to be tried
Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said his government planned to try 12 al-Qaeda suspects now in detention in Iran. "It's in the process," he said in Davos, where he was attending the World Economic Forum. Asked when the trials would begin, he replied: "That's not in my hands." He said Friday that the identities of those to be tried "has not been announced." The US said the Iranian plan was not acceptable to Washington. "We have long made it clear that we believe that Iran should turn over all suspected al-Qaeda operatives to the United States or to countries of origin or third countries for further interrogation and trial," US State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said Friday.
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