■ United Kingdom
Iran under more pressure
Britain and France put new pressure on Iran on Tuesday to obey international rules over its nuclear program and underlined the intention of the US and European powers to ensure it does so. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Moscow also shared the goal of preventing nuclear proliferation, but he cautioned against doing anything that might threaten the work of the UN nuclear agency in Iran. Lavrov gave no hint after talks in Paris that Russia was about to abandon cooperation with Tehran on a nuclear plant it is building in Iran, despite calls to do so by Washington.
■ United States
IRA leader indicted
The US Justice Department has indicted the leader of an Irish Republican Army splinter group for conspiring with North Korea to distribute counterfeit US currency in Europe and Britain, the Wall Street Journal said yesterday. The department is seeking the extradition of Sean Garland, 71, who was arrested on Friday in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and six other alleged accomplices for trial in the US within the next 65 days, the daily said. The indictment marks the first time Washington has formally cited Pyongyang in a US court for allegedly mass-producing counterfeit US$100 bills, known as Supernotes.
■ United Kingdom
Damages offered for raid
Britain offered on Tuesday to pay compensation for personal injuries and damage to buildings caused when its troops raided a prison in southern Iraq last month to free two British special forces soldiers. "We regret the incidents that took place in Basra on 19 September 2005. We also regret the casualties on both sides and the material damage to public facilities," local British and Iraqi authorities said in a joint statement. The incident, in which the two soldiers who had been operating undercover in Basra were captured by Iraqi police after a firefight and then taken by militant militias, badly soured diplomatic relations between Britain and Iraq.
■ United States
Reporter hands in notes
New York Times reporter Judith Miller turned over notes of a previously undisclosed conversation with Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff and underwent questioning by prosecutors in the criminal probe of the Bush administration's leak of a covert CIA officer's identity. In a memo to its staff, the newspaper said Miller was to appear yesterday before a federal grand jury in the investigation, her second grand jury appearance in recent days. The Times said that it is preparing a story about Miller's "entanglement with the White House leak investigation" and that the story will be completed when the reporter finishes her cooperation with prosecutors.
RSS