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Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili attends an official meeting with India's national security adviser M. K. Narayanan in Tehran July 1, 2008. REUTERS/Morteza Nikoubazl

Powers wield sanction threat after Iran stalemate

Sat Jul 19, 4:04 PM ET

GENEVA (Reuters) - Major powers gave Iran two weeks to answer calls to rein in its nuclear programme on Saturday or face tougher sanctions after talks ended in stalemate despite unprecedented U.S. participation.

  • Prime Minister Gordon Brown speaks to journalists during his monthly news conference in Downing Street on July 14, 2008. REUTERS/Clive Gee/Pool
    UK's Brown says wants to cut troops in Iraq Sat Jul 19, 1:35 PM ET

    BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Prime Minister Gordon Brown flew into Baghdad on Saturday and said he wanted to reduce British troop levels in Iraq, although he refused to set a timetable for their departure.

  • Pakistan will not admit foreign troops: PM Sat Jul 19, 2:36 PM ET

    ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan is committed to supporting the U.S.-led global coalition fighting al Qaeda and the Taliban but will not allow allied foreign forces to operate on its territory, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said.

  • World's largest confessional staged in Sydney 4 minutes ago

    SYDNEY (Reuters) - At most outdoor festivals the longest queues are generally for the portable toilets and bar but at World Youth Day in Sydney, the Catholic Church's version of Woodstock, one of the biggest queues is for confessing sins.

  • An image grab taken from a videotape broadcast in February 2008 by Al-Arabiya news network shows a British hostage held in Iraq, who gave his name as Peter Moore. The group that kidnapped five Britons in Iraq in May 2007 has released a video to the Sunday Times newspaper, the weekly reported.(AFP/Al-Arabiya/File)
    Iraq's Sunni Arab bloc rejoins government Sat Jul 19, 5:48 AM ET

    BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's main Sunni Arab bloc rejoined the Shi'ite-led government on Saturday in a breakthrough for national reconciliation after parliament approved its candidates for several vacant ministerial posts.

  • Brazilian police recover Picasso print, nab suspect 2 hours, 30 minutes ago

    SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Police recovered a Pablo Picasso print and arrested one person in connection with an armed robbery at Sao Paulo's Pinacoteca Museum last month, local media reported on Saturday.

  • Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir dances during the ceremony of signing Sudan's new election law in Khartoum in this recent photo from July 14, 2008. Algeria urged other Arab nations on Saturday to press the United Nations Security Council to prevent the International Criminal Court (ICC) from issuing an arrest warrant for al-Bashir.REUTERS/Mohamed Nureldin Abdalla (SUDAN)
    Arab ministers criticize ICC Sudan charges Sat Jul 19, 4:34 PM ET

    CAIRO (Reuters) - The Arab League criticized the International Criminal Court's prosecutor for seeking the arrest of Sudan's president on genocide charges, saying diplomacy should be given a priority to solve the conflict in Darfur.

  • Lebanese soldiers secure an army checkpoint at the entrance to the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Helweh on the outskirts of the southern Lebanese city of Sidon. Two people were killed and four wounded on Saturday when a verbal argument turned violent in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain el-Helweh in south Lebanon, a Palestinian official said.(AFP/Mahmoud Zayat)
    Gunbattle at Palestinian camp in Lebanon kills two Sat Jul 19, 2:04 PM ET

    EIN AL-HILWEH, Lebanon (Reuters) - Two people were killed on Saturday in a gunbattle between members of the Fatah faction and Sunni Islamist militants at a Palestinian refugee camp in south Lebanon, camp officials said.

  • Colombia and Brazil enter into military pact 42 minutes ago

    BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia's U.S.-backed president entered into defense pact with the left-of-center government of Brazil on Saturday, marking a step in regional cooperation aimed at fighting cocaine-funded Marxist rebels.

  • Nine Indian soldiers killed in Kashmir explosion Sat Jul 19, 2:16 PM ET

    SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - At least nine Indian soldiers were killed and 16 wounded on Saturday when their vehicle detonated a landmine in the biggest attack on Indian soldiers in recent months.

  • Pope Benedict XVI arrives in his Pope-mobile for the Final Mass at Randwick Racecourse during World Youth Day in Sydney, Australia, Sunday, July 20 2008.(AP Photo/Rob Griffith)
    Pope flies over sea of young pilgrims 59 minutes ago

    SYDNEY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict flew by helicopter on Sunday over hundreds of thousands of young Catholic pilgrims who staged an all-night vigil at Sydney's main horse racing track ahead of an outdoor papal mass.

  • Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of Zimbabwe's main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), gestures during a news conference at his residence in Harare July 2, 2008. REUTERS/Philimon Bulawayo
    Zimbabwe opposition may sign initial talks agreement Sat Jul 19, 2:57 PM ET

    HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's main opposition party could sign an agreement as early as Monday to begin substantive talks with President Robert Mugabe's party on ending a political impasse that has worsened the country's severe economic crisis, opposition officials said on Saturday.

  • Pope Benedict XVI blesses a meeting at a World Youth Day event for young disadvantaged people in Sydney July 18, 2008. Picture taken July 18, 2008. REUTERS/William West/Pool
    Pope apologizes for Church sex abuse Sat Jul 19, 6:21 AM ET

    SYDNEY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict on Saturday apologized directly for the first time for sexual abuse of minors by Catholic clergy, but victims groups in Australia said they wanted action and not words.

  • Zuma says Mandela "glue" holding South Africa together Sat Jul 19, 2:24 PM ET

    JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The leader of South Africa's ruling party said former President Nelson Mandela was the glue holding the country together, giving voice to long-held fears about the future of the fledgling democracy without him.

  • File photo shows an armored vehicle passing Kurdish children in the montainous province of Karliova, southeastern of the city of Bingol. Two Kurdish rebels and a soldier were killed overnight in fighting in southeast Turkey, security sources said Friday.(AFP/File/Mustafa Ozer)
    Ten Kurdish rebels killed in clashes in SE Turkey Sat Jul 19, 8:08 AM ET

    DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (Reuters) - Ten members of the separatist Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) were killed in clashes with Turkish military forces in southeastern Turkey late on Friday, security sources said on Saturday.

  • Police kill two in clash in southwest China: report Sat Jul 19, 8:07 AM ET

    SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Chinese police killed two people in a clash with locals residents in Menglian County, a rubber farming area in southwest China's Yunnan province with a large ethnic minority population, the official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.

  • Ram Raja Prasad Singh, the presidential candidate proposed by the Maoist, fills in his nomination papers beside Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai at the Constituent Assembly in the Parliament House in Kathmandu July 17, 2008. Nepal was set to elect its first president on Saturday, from a marginalized ethnic community whose violent demand for a greater say in running the government once threatened a peace deal with Maoist former rebels. REUTERS/Shruti Shrestha
    Ethnic Madheshi set to be Nepal's first president Sat Jul 19, 2:17 AM ET

    KATHMANDU (Reuters) - Nepal was set to elect its first president on Saturday, from a marginalized ethnic community whose violent demand for a greater say in running the government once threatened a peace deal with Maoist former rebels.

  • Italian climbers spotted on Pakistan's deadly peak Sat Jul 19, 6:55 AM ET

    ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A rescue helicopter has spotted two Italian mountaineers stranded on one of the world's deadliest peaks in northern Pakistan, the Italian embassy said on Saturday.

  • Soldiers (left) prepare to transport the dead body of a schoolboy recovered from the rubble of a collapsed school in Yingxiu town, in China's southwestern Sichuan province in late June. Chinese dissident Huang Qi, the veteran Chinese activist who has campaigned for the parents of children killed in the earthquake, has been arrested for "illegal possession of state secrets," his wife has said(AFP/File/Liu Jin)
    China arrests quake critic on secrets charge Sat Jul 19, 6:15 AM ET

    BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese police arrested a human rights campaigner in the country's southwest for "possession of state secrets" after he offered help to parents of children killed in the region's massive earthquake, his family said.

  • E.U. foreign policy chief Javier Solana is pictured before a meeting on nuclear issues with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili at the Town Hall in Geneva July 19, 2008. World powers will sound out Iran's readiness to negotiate an end to the long dispute over its nuclear programme on Saturday, and Tehran said more such meetings might be needed. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse
    Iran won't discuss enrichment freeze in next talks Sat Jul 19, 12:14 PM ET

    GENEVA (Reuters) - Iran's top nuclear negotiator ruled out on Saturday discussion of freezing uranium enrichment at any subsequent round of talks with major powers.