World briefs 6/13/04

Iran rejects restrictions on its nuclear program

TEHRAN, Iran -- Toughening its stance in advance of a meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, Iran on Saturday said it would reject international restrictions on its nuclear program and challenged the world to accept Tehran as a member of the "nuclear club." Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi rejected further outside influence on Tehran's nuclear ambitions. insisting that Iran would not give up its development of the nuclear fuel cycle, the steps for processing and enriching uranium necessary for both nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. Iran says it has achieved the full cycle, but is not now enriching uranium.

Bloody fighting kills more than 80 Taliban militants

KABUL, Afghanistan -- In the bloodiest fighting this year, U.S. Marines killed more than 80 insurgents in a three-week offensive against a Taliban stronghold in the mountains of southern Afghanistan, the military said Saturday. Some 2,000 Marines were sent to Afghanistan this spring, swelling the U.S.-dominated force to 20,000 -- its largest yet -- in an attempt to put rebels on the defensive ahead of September elections. Militants have stepped up their own operations, feeding a spiral of violence that has left more than 450 people dead across the country this year.

Italians, Czechs, Maltese, Irish and Latvians vote

ROME -- In voting for the European Parliament, Italians cast ballots Saturday, with their government's pro-U.S. stance weighing on their minds. Voters in the Czech Republic, Ireland and Latvia showed impatience with their leaders, handing victories to opposition parties. Latvians, Maltese and Czechs were voting for the first time since becoming members of an enlarged European Union on May 1. The 25-nation election began Thursday in Britain and the Netherlands and runs through today. The voting is to choose members of the 732-delegate European Parliament, but the results are often read as a test of voters sentiment about their national governments as much as about the union.

Britain marks queen's birthday with royal pomp

LONDON -- Britain put on one of its grandest annual shows of royal pageantry Saturday to officially mark Queen Elizabeth II's birthday. More than 1,000 soldiers in ceremonial red dress marched and saluted the monarch in the Trooping the Color ceremony at the Horseguards Parade ground near Buckingham Palace. While Elizabeth actually turned 78 on April 21, the public celebrations of her birthday are always held on a Saturday in June. The queen inspected the troops from an open carriage and then watched them parade from a platform where she sat next to her husband, Prince Philip.

Bosnian Serbs: Thousands of Muslims massacred

SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Bosnian Serb officials have admitted for the first time that their security forces carried out Europe's worst massacre since World War II, according to an investigative report. At the height of the 3 1/2-year Bosnian war, Serb troops overran a U.N.-declared safe zone in Srebrenica and slaughtered up to 8,000 Muslim men and boys in what the U.N. war crimes tribunal has declared an act of genocide. The Srebrenica Commission, made up of Bosnian Serb judges and lawyers, was formed last year to investigate who was involved.

-- From wire reports