WESTERN EUROPE

FRANCE ACCUSES IRAN OF SECRET MILITARY NUCLEAR PROGRAM

PARIS – France accused Iran on yesterday of developing a secret military nuclear program in one of the toughest public criticisms yet against Tehran by a European nation. “No civilian nuclear program can explain the Iranian nuclear program,” French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said in an interview with France 2 Television. “It is a clandestine military nuclear program.” Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, responded on Iranian state television, saying, “We want civilian nuclear energy; we don’t want to have the bomb.” The French foreign minister’s statement came two days after Iranian officials confirmed they had resumed uranium enrichment research in defiance of international mandates forbidding the work. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday visited the Natanz nuclear facility about 150 miles south of Tehran where the uranium enrichment facilities are located, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

– The Washington Post

OCEANIA

AUSTRALIAN HEALTH MINISTER STRIPPED OF CONTROL OF ABORTION PILL

SYDNEY, Australia – Australia’s parliament yesterday stripped regulatory control of an abortion drug from the country’s health minister – a staunch Roman Catholic who once warned of an “epidemic” of abortion in Australia. The issue has created a fierce debate across the political spectrum and has drawn the attention of activists in America and Europe. The Senate voted 45-28 last week to take regulatory authority over the abortion pill mifepristone – also known as RU-486 – away from Health Minister Tony Abbott and hand it to the country’s main drug regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration. The House of Representatives on yesterday approved the bill with overwhelming support on a voice vote. No official count was taken.

– Associated Press

EAST ASIA

CONTROVERSIAL CHINESE NEWSPAPER SUPPLEMENT TO REOPEN

BEIJING – A Chinese newspaper supplement known for hard-hitting coverage of sensitive issues will resume publishing more than a month after being shut down, but its two top editors were fired, one of the editors said yesterday. The closure of Bing Dian, a four-page weekly supplement of the China Youth Daily, was seen as part of the communist government’s efforts to tighten control over the media. Though no official reason was given for the shutdown in late January, editor-in-chief Li Datong has said it was the culmination of ongoing tensions over the paper’s content. Li met with newspaper officials yesterday and said afterward he and deputy editor Lu Yuegang had been removed from their posts and transferred to the News Research Institute, another department of the China Youth Daily. He said the supplement will resume publication March 1. As part of the deal to reopen, Bing Dian also will have to run an article criticizing a previously published essay by Yuan Weishi, who complained of a political bias in the way that Chinese textbooks present 19th-century history.

– Associated Press

CARIBBEAN

PREVAL DECLARED WINNER OF HAITI ELECTION AFTER DEAL REACHED

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Rene Preval was declared the winner of Haiti’s presidential election yesterday under an agreement between the interim government and electoral council, staving off a crisis over last week’s disputed vote. With nearly all the ballots counted, Mr. Preval had been just shy of the 50.1% margin needed to avoid a runoff.

– Associated Press