PERSIAN GULF

TALIBANI INSISTS DEADLINE ON CONSTITUTION BE MET

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Framers of Iraq’s new constitution said yesterday they need more time to finish the document, a move that threatens the political momentum on which Washington has staked its strategy for drawing down forces from the country next year.

President Talabani, however, insisted that the August 15 deadline for parliament to approve the draft charter must be met. [The New YorkTimes reported last night on its Web site that the leaders had agreed to meet the deadline, although they said some issues may be unresolved.]

Defense Secretary Rumsfeld flew to Baghdad on Wednesday to insist that the Iraqis finish the constitution on time. But substantial differences remain among the Sunni Arab, Shiite, and Kurdish factions despite weeks of intense deliberations.

Underscoring the stakes, the American military announced yesterday that five more American service members died in a pair of explosions in Baghdad the day before.

Members of the drafting committee had been warning for weeks that although 90% of the document was completed, the 71 members could not agree on a handful of key issues, including federalism, the role of Islam, distribution of national wealth, and the name of the country.

In Washington, the Bush administration said that, officially, no one has asked for a new timetable for finishing the constitution.

Yesterday, a car bomb exploded south of Baghdad, killing five civilians and wounding 10, including two policemen. A convoy carrying several members of Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress group was ambushed south of Baghdad, leaving one person dead and three wounded, his spokesman said.

U.S. Marines used tanks and jet aircraft to attack insurgents who fired at a patrol with machine guns from a schoolhouse near Haditha, 140 miles northwest of Baghdad. Eleven insurgents were killed, the American military said without mentioning any American losses.

– Associated Press

IRAN THREATENS TO RESUME NUCLEAR PROGRAM

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran threatened yesterday to restart some suspended activities that could be used to make atomic weapons if European negotiators do not immediately offer a promised package of incentives to entice Tehran to freeze its nuclear program.

A senior European diplomat said the negotiators from Britain, France, and Germany were just days away from making Tehran a “generous” offer that could include guarantees that Iran will not be invaded if it agrees to permanently halt uranium enrichment. But Iran’s nuclear negotiator Hasan Rowhani turned up the pressure for an immediate proposal by warning that Iran was preparing to restart uranium reprocessing work at its Isfahan Nuclear Conversion Facility, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Iran’s top officials were to decide yesterday evening whether to restart the Isfahan plant, said Ali Agha Mohammadi, a spokesman for Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. No statement on the council’s decision was published on Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency last night.

France, Britain and Germany, acting on behalf of the 25-nation European Union, had been expected to present their incentive package to Iran by the beginning of August, but they requested a delay until August 7.

President Khatemi, who will be replaced August 6 by conservative presidentelect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said last week that Iran would resume some suspended activities, with or without European consent.

– Associated Press

EAST ASIA

NORTH KOREA NEGOTIATIONS MOVE INTO SEVENTH DAY

BEIJING – North Korea’s demands for what it should receive in exchange for abandoning its nuclear weapons program snarled talks yesterday, but the America envoy maintained that “things are moving,” with more negotiations planned today.

The negotiations ended their sixth day without an agreement on a Chinese-drafted proposal, and South Korea’s deputy foreign minister, Song Min-soon, said talks yesterday focused on “what corresponding measures other parties will take” in return for an agreement by the North to dismantle its nuclear weapons program.

The North has demanded concessions such as security guarantees and aid from Washington before it eliminates its weapons program, while America wants to see the arms destroyed first. The North has also insisted that it be allowed to run a peaceful nuclear power program, something Washington objects to out of proliferation concerns.

No details of the draft agreement have been released, but a Japanese news report said it called for North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons programs and other programs that could potentially produce such arms.The draft also addresses normalization of American and Japanese relations with the North, Kyodo News agency reported, citing an anonymous source at the talks.

The chief American envoy, Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, earlier said the Chinese draft proposed Saturday was a “good basis” for future negotiations.

No end date for the talks has been set, and Mr. Hill said yesterday that “it’s going to take a while.” He noted that the process requires translating texts into the five languages of the six nations at the talks: Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, and Russian.

– Associated Press

COUNTERFEIT ‘HARRY POTTER’ LANDS IN CHINA

BEIJING – It’s missing some paragraphs and gets a couple of facts wrong, but the wizards of China’s thriving piracy industry have worked their magic again and produced a rush translation of the latest Harry Potter book.

An unauthorized Chinese version of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” was on sale yesterday in Beijing, just two weeks after the book appeared in English and almost three months ahead of the planned October launch of the official Chinese-language edition.

Impatient Chinese fans also have begun posting their own translations online. One reader was so upset about the ending he wrote his own and posted it on a university Web site. The fantasy series by J.K. Rowling is wildly popular in China, where the hero is known as “Ha-li Bo-te” and authorized translations of five earlier books have sold millions of copies.

Chinese leaders, under pressure from America and the country’s other trading partners, have promised repeatedly to stamp out the country’s rampant piracy of goods ranging from books and movies to drugs and designer clothes. But such fakes are still widely available.

– Associated Press

NORTH AFRICA

SUDANESE VICE PRESIDENT REPORTED MISSING

KHARTOUM, Sudan – A plane carrying the former rebel who ascended to Sudan’s no. 2 leadership post has disappeared after losing contact, a Sudanese Cabinet minister said today on state television, contradicting earlier reports. The statement came hours after state television interrupted its regular programming to say that Vice President John Garang “has landed safely at a camp in southern Sudan” after his flight from Uganda was reported missing in bad weather yesterday. Communications Minister Abdel-Basit Sabdarat said Sudan’s president had ordered the country’s air force to search for the aircraft. Mr. Garang, 60, is a charismatic figure whose leadership is seen as key to ensuring the endurance of the peace agreement signed in January. The accord ended 21 years of war by providing for power sharing between the Khartoum government and Mr. Garang’s southern-based rebels. In its earlier report, Sudanese television said Mr. Garang was heading to a former rebel base in southern Sudan when contact was lost with his aircraft.

– Associated Press