Foreign Desk
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

PERSIAN GULF
IRAN ENDS VOLUNTARY COOPERATION WITH THE IAEA
UNITED NATIONS – The campaign to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon has now moved to the U.N. Security Council, but countries there have vastly different ideas of what the council should do. The five permanent council members are split, with America, Britain, and France hoping to pressure Iran into backing down with the ultimate threat of sanctions. However, China and Russia do not want to incite Tehran and would prefer that the council play a limited role, with the International Atomic Energy Agency keeping the lead in handling Iran.
The Iranian government yesterday ended all voluntary cooperation with the IAEA, saying it would start uranium enrichment and reject surprise inspections of its facilities. However, in an apparent reversal, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said the government was open to negotiations on Moscow’s proposal that Iran shift its plan for large-scale enrichment to Russian territory in an effort to allay suspicions. A day earlier, an Iran representative at the IAEA meeting said that proposal was “dead.”
– Associated Press
IRAQ STEPS UP SECURITY FOR SHIITE EVENT
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraq will deploy thousands of police to prevent Sunni militants bombing a major Shiite ceremony next week, while the bullet-riddled bodies of two Shiites were found yesterday in the latest round of killings between rival Sunni and Shiite groups. The American military, meanwhile, announced the release of about 50 Iraqi detainees, but no women were among them. The freeing of women is a demand by kidnappers of American journalist Jill Carroll, who was abducted January 7 in Baghdad.
– Associated Press
INTERPOL: PLOTTER OF USS COLE ATTACK AMONG YEMEN ESCAPEES
SAN’A, Yemen – An Al Qaeda operative sentenced to death for plotting the USS Cole bombing that killed 17 sailors in 2000, Jamal al-Badawi, was among a group of convicts who escaped from a Yemen prison last week, Interpol said yesterday in issuing a global security alert.
Officials set up checkpoints around the capital of San’a, where the prison was located, to try to catch the escapees before they could flee to the protection of mountain tribes, according to a Yemeni security official speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press. The Yemeni government made no official comment Sunday.
– Associated Press
MIDDLE EAST
ISRAEL AGREES TO TRANSFER MILLIONS TO PALESTINIANS
JERUSALEM – Israeli officials yesterday agreed to make an overdue payment of about $45 million owed to the Palestinian Arabs, but said future transfers will be halted once the terrorist group Hamas forms the next Palestinian government. Israel delayed the most recent payment last week to protest Hamas’s victory in Palestinian legislative elections, deepening a financial crisis for the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority. Israeli Cabinet minister Zeev Boim said before yesterday’s government vote that the money was being transferred because Hamas is not part of the Palestinian government yet.
– Associated Press
CATHOLIC PRIEST SHOT, KILLED
ANKARA, Turkey – A teenage boy shot and killed an Italian Roman Catholic priest of Santa Maria Churh, 60-year-old Andrea Santoro, hours after Mass in the Black Sea port city of Trabzon yesterday, shouting “God is great” as he escaped, according to police and witnesses. Officers were searching for the boy aged around 14 or 15, according to a police official who declined to be identified because of rules that bar Turkish civil servants from speaking to journalists without prior authorization.
– Associated Press
CARIBBEAN
HAITIANS PREPARE TO GO TO POLLS
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Haitians have no shortage of things they would like to change about their troubled country. They will have their say tomorrow in long-delayed elections aimed at restoring elusive democracy. The front-runner is an agronomist who led Haiti from 1996 to 2001 and is the only elected Haitian president to finish his term in office, Rene Preval. Leslie Manigat, who was president for five months in 1988 after winning elections rigged by the military, is seen as the candidate favored by much of the private sector. Also vying for the presidency is a boyish-looking, 37-year-old exparamilitary who helped lead the uprising against ousted President Aristide, Guy Phillippe.
– Associated Press