Iran calls for end to violent protests over cartoons
BRUSSELS, Belgium -- Iran backed calls from other Muslim and world leaders Monday for an end to violent protests over the Prophet Muhammad cartoons, urging calm after weeks of demonstrations that have left at least 45 people dead in the Muslim world. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, on a visit to European Union headquarters, said he and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana urged better dialogue between the Muslim world and the West over respect and tolerance. Also, Iran took a tough stance in high-profile talks Monday on the Kremlin's offer to enrich uranium in Russia, seen as a last chance for Tehran to stave off international sanctions. Iran's top negotiator dismissed Russia's call for his country to freeze its domestic enrichment program, and the two delegations ended the day of nuclear talks without any apparent breakthrough.
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- The head of Haiti's electoral council fled the country after opponents threatened his life and burned down his farmhouse nearly two weeks after disputed elections, an official said Monday. Jacques Bernard, appointed three months ago to bring order to a council that was plagued by organizational problems and infighting, left Sunday and may have traveled to Miami, said Michel Brunache, chief of staff for interim President Boniface Alexandre. On Friday, Bernard had reported receiving threats and requested more security amid complaints about the vote count from the Feb. 7 elections, which returned former President Rene Preval to the office, Brunache said.
TOKYO -- Japan will resume imports of U.S. beef only if Washington can convince Tokyo that it will implement effective safeguards against mad cow disease, a top Japanese official said today. Chief Cabinet Secretary Shinzo Abe said the government was still examining a U.S. Department of Agriculture report on the faulty veal shipment that prompted Japan to close its markets to American beef last month. Japan's agriculture minister said on Monday that the report was insufficient and raised a lot of questions, and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said a quick resumption of imports was unlikely.
LAGOS, Nigeria -- Militants holding nine foreigners hostage launched attacks Monday on a pipeline and a boat in Nigeria's swampy delta region, vowing to spread their campaign across the petroleum-rich south from where most of the African oil giant's crude is pumped. Attacks on oil installations in recent days by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta have now cut about 20 percent of daily oil output in Nigeria, an OPEC member and Africa's leading producer of crude. The latest violence didn't cause further production cuts but helped send oil prices higher on international markets. Nigeria is Africa's leading oil exporter and the United States' fifth-largest supplier, usually exporting 2.5 million barrels daily.
-- From wire reports
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