PERSIAN GULF

HARD-LINE IRANIANS PRESS FOR END TO NUCLEAR NEGOTIATIONS

TEHRAN, Iran – Iranian hard-liners called for an end to nuclear negotiations with European powers yesterday, and said they opposed any deal imposing limitations on Iran’s nuclear program. But a foreign ministry spokesman, Hamid Reza Asefi, said Iran will remain committed to talks with Europeans despite a lack of progress. Mr. Asefi said Iran has decided to resume certain nuclear activities it voluntarily suspended in November, but actual uranium enrichment – injecting uranium gas into centrifuges – will remain suspended for now despite hard-line calls for its resumption. Enriched uranium can be used to produce warheads, but it also can be used to make electricity, which Iranian officials insist is the sole purpose of their nuclear program. Washington accuses Tehran of trying to build nuclear weapons.

– Associated Press

CENTRAL ASIA

TRIBAL LEADERS BACK PLAN FOR PARTNERSHIP WITH AMERICA

KABUL, Afghanistan – Hundreds of tribal leaders backed President Karzai’s plan for a “strategic partnership” with America yesterday, a government spokesman said, a pact that could cement a long-term American military presence in Central Asia.

More than 1,000 elders and officials from across Afghanistan met with Mr. Karzai in the presidential palace in Kabul yesterday for consultations on the plan, a spokesman, Jawed Ludin, said.

“Our finding from today’s discussion was that people are, on the whole, very positive about this,” Mr. Ludin said at a news conference, adding that only one person had spoken against the plan. Mr. Ludin didn’t describe the man’s objections.

Mr. Karzai would likely talk about the partnership, which Afghan officials say must cover economic and political links as well as military aid, in a meeting with President Bush in Washington later this month, the spokesman said.

Discussions begun several months ago were entering “a more formal phase,” Mr. Ludin said.

– Associated Press

U.N. ENGINEER AMONG THOSE KILLED IN CAFE BOMBING

KABUL, Afghanistan – A U.N. engineer from Burma was among three people killed when a suicide attacker walked into a Kabul Internet cafe and blew himself up, officials said yesterday, in the first fatal attack on a U.N. staffer in the capital since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. The bombing on Saturday followed a series of kidnap attempts on foreigners and the killing of a British development worker, deepening a sense of insecurity in the city just as a Taliban-led insurgency revives in the south. Afghanistan’s top law-enforcer promised a thorough investigation and said police were erecting extra checkpoints around the country. The American ambassador condemned the targeting of an Internet cafe as an attack on “Afghans’ desire to be part of the larger world.”

– Associated Press

SOUTHEAST ASIA

BURMA CAPITAL SUFFERS THREE EXPLOSIONS

RANGOON, Burma – Three explosions rocked Burma’s capital on Saturday, killing 11 people and wounding 162 others in the latest bombings blamed on ethnic rebels in the military-ruled country. The blasts occurred in rapid succession at a convention center and two bustling supermarkets in neighborhoods across the city of 5 million people starting around mid-afternoon. It was not immediately known how many people died at each site. State television said several ethnic rebel groups, including the Karen National Union and the Shan State Army, were behind the attacks. It called the perpetrators “terrorists” who were trying to disrupt “stability and tranquility.”

TV footage of the bombing sites showed storefronts littered with rubble and broken glass and floors splattered with blood along with a public advisory urging Rangoon residents to remain alert for further violence.

– Associated Press

EAST ASIA

TOKYO-BOUND JET MAKES EMERGENCY LANDING

TOKYO – Japan Airlines said today that its chairman was resigning, a day after a drop in cabin pressure forced a JAL flight to Tokyo from New York with 355 people aboard to make an emergency landing. Also yesterday, another JAL flight carrying 85 passengers bound for Manila was rerouted when the plane’s altimeter malfunctioned, officials said. There were no injuries in either incident. The chairman, Isao Kaneko, will resign at the end of the month to take responsibility for a string of safety lapses at Japan’s largest carrier, a company spokesman, Teiji Murayama, said. Mr. Murayama said Mr. Kaneko’s offer to resign on May 31 was accepted early today. Japan’s Transport Ministry issued a highly unusual public warning to the company earlier this year over a series of errors. In January, a JAL pilot in northern Japan attempted to take off without receiving approval from air traffic controllers.

– Associated Press