International News

Iran to launch satellite on its own by late 2011

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran plans to launch a communications satellite by late 2011 with no outside help, a top Iranian official said today, after Italy and Russia declined to put it into orbit. The move reflected Tehran’s frustration with the two countries as it tries to push ahead with an ambitious space program, which has worried world powers because the same rocket technology used to launch satellites can also be used for military purposes.

UN committee targets Iran’s rights violations

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A United Nations committee has approved a resolution urging Iran to stop harassing political opponents. Citing arbitrary arrests, detentions and the disappearance of Iranians exercising their right to freedom following the June 12 presidential election, the General Assembly’s human rights committee approved the resolution today by a vote of 74-48 with 59 abstentions.

Six world powers press Iran on nuclear issue

BRUSSELS (AP) — Representatives of six world powers urged Iran today to accept a U.N. plan aimed at delaying its ability to build a nuclear weapon, as the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency warned Tehran not to miss the opportunity to resolve the dispute. An EU official said there was no mention of imposing sanctions against Iran for its refusal to halt nuclear enrichment activities at the meeting of senior diplomats from the U.N. Security Council’s five permanent members plus Germany.

Suicide bomber kills 16 in western Afghanistan

KABUL (AP) — A suicide bomber killed 16 people and wounded at least 23 others today in a city square in western Afghanistan, while near Kabul a powerful former warlord escaped an assassination attempt, officials said. The attacks came a day after Afghan President Hamid Karzai took the oath of office for a second term. Karzai said he has put national reconciliation with Taliban insurgents at the top of his agenda.

Floods devastate England, Ireland

COCKERMOUTH, England (AP) — Military helicopters winched dozens of people to safety and emergency workers in inflatable boats rescued scores more as floods today swamped northern England’s picturesque Lake District. One police officer was missing and feared dead after a bridge was swept away. British soldiers conducted house-to-house searches for those trapped by floods as deep as 8 feet. Troops also dropped down on lines from air force helicopters, breaking through rooftops to pluck people to safety.

Russian court rules against death penalty

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — Russia’s Constitutional Court effectively outlawed the death penalty today, saying a moratorium on capital punishment should remain in force until the nation fully bans executions. Constitutional Court chief Valery Zorkin said Russia must extend the moratorium until it ratifies a European convention banning the death penalty.

Bloody backlash isn’t letting up in Pakistan — bomber kills 19

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — A suicide bomber blew himself up outside a courthouse in northwestern Pakistan today, killing 19 people in the latest attack in an onslaught by Islamist militants retaliating against an army offensive near the Afghan border. The bombing was the seventh militant strike in less than two weeks in and around Peshawar, the largest city in the northwest. The attacks have killed more than 80 people.

Afghanistan’s Karzai promises second term will be different

KABUL (AP) — Afghanistan will control its own security within five years and prosecute corrupt officials, President Hamid Karzai pledged today in an inauguration speech made under intense pressure to shed the cronyism and graft that marked his government’s first term. As Karzai vowed to make the country safe from an increasingly violent Taliban insurgency, two U.S. service members died in a bomb attack and a suicide bomber killed 10 civilians in the south.

Iraqi lawmakers trying to break election deadlock

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraqi lawmakers will vote Saturday on how to break a deadlock over a key election law after a vice president vetoed the legislation, causing a crisis that could delay a national vote scheduled for January. Lawmakers are looking at two options — sending the same law back to the three-member presidency council, where it is likely to be vetoed again — or amending the law to address concerns of Vice President Tariq al-Hashemi.

China holds, mistreats U.S. geologist

BEIJING (AP) — Sometime into his long detention by China’s feared state security agents, American geologist Xue Feng had something to show U.S. consular officials on their monthly visit. He rolled up his sleeve, revealing the burns where his interrogators pressed lit cigarettes into his arm. Xue also had something to say: He wanted his previously unpublicized detention made public in hopes that the outcry would win his release.

Big powers ponder how to punish Iran for nukes

BRUSSELS (AP) — The United States and five other world powers will meet Friday in Brussels to discuss what measures can be taken to punish Tehran for its refusal to halt its nuclear enrichment program. The meeting will include the U.N. Security Council’s permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S. — plus Germany, an EU official said today, speaking on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to disclose details.

Clinton: Afghan leader must institute reforms

KABUL — Hillary Rodham Clinton, on her first trip to Afghanistan as U.S. secretary of state, said today that President Hamid Karzai’s inauguration provides a new chance for him to strengthen government accountability. Karzai, who invited Clinton to dinner at his presidential palace, is under stiff pressure from the U.S. and other nations to fight pervasive corruption in his government.

Obama says he met with his half brother

BEIJING — President Barack Obama said today that he met briefly with a half brother who lives in China and who recently wrote a semi-autobiographical novel about the abusive Kenyan father they share. Obama acknowledged the meeting in an interview with CNN. He offered no details.

Maersk Alabama repels second pirate attack

NAIROBI, Kenya — Somali pirates attacked the Maersk Alabama early today for the second time in seven months, though private guards on board the U.S.-flagged ship repelled the attack with gunfire and a high-decibel noise device. A U.S. surveillance plane was monitoring the ship as it continued to its destination on the Kenyan coast, while a pirate said that the captain of a ship hijacked Monday with 28 North Korean crew members on board had died of wounds.

Man charged in Germany for Nazi-era crimes

BERLIN — Former SS sergeant Adolf Storms lived in Germany unnoticed for more than six decades after World War II until an Austrian university student last year came across his name while researching a 1945 massacre of Jewish forced laborers. The student gave the information to state prosecutors near Storms’ hometown of Duisburg, and they have now filed charges against the 90-year-old on 58 counts of murder for the killings near the Austrian village of Deutsch Schuetzen, a German court said.