MOSCOW – Chechen rebels claimed responsibility yesterday for a Siberian dam disaster as part of an economic war against Russia, but the Kremlin dismissed the claim and financial markets ignored it.
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VIENNA – Iran has let U.N. inspectors access a nuclear reactor under construction after blocking visits for a year, and allowed better monitoring at another, but the moves were greeted with scepticism by the West.
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TEHRAN – A hardline Iranian cleric called yesterday for the arrest of leaders of post-election unrest in what appeared to be a reference to defeated moderate presidential candidates Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi.
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WASHINGTON – The Obama administration will raise its 10-year budget deficit projection to approximately $9 trillion from $7.108 trillion in a report next week, a senior administration official told Reuters on Friday.
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BAGHDAD – Senior Iraqi officials called yesterday for a thorough review of their security forces, improved intelligence gathering and tougher treatment of terrorism suspects and detainees after massive truck bombings in Baghdad.
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SEOUL – North Korean officials sent by leader Kim Jong-il arrived in the South yesterday to mourn former President Kim Dae-jung in a move that may signal a warming of ties between the rival states.
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LONDON/WASHINGTON – The United States and Britain yesterday condemned a “hero’s welcome” given to the newly released Lockerbie bomber, with London scrambling to stem fallout from the decision to free him on humanitarian grounds.
