Northern Ireland
IRA resumes contacts with commission
The Irish Republican Army announced Wednesday that it had resumed direct contact with an independent disarmament commission after a break of more than a year.
"Decommissioning" of weapons is a central issue of the 1998 Good Friday peace accord, which envisioned that the IRA would gradually disarm.
Northern Ireland's joint Catholic-Protestant government, established under the peace agreement, could be set aside, as happened last year, if the disarmament issue isn't resolved soon.
Beijing
China wants to talk U.S. out of defense shield
Portraying China as a willing negotiating partner of the United States instead of an entrenched adversary, Beijing's top arms control official said Wednesday that his government hopes to talk Washington out of deploying an anti-missile defense shield.
The arms control official, Sha Zukang, focused on the need for talks. Shield plans would touch off an arms race and upset the delicate global strategic balance that took years to achieve, he said.
Moscow
Russian legislator shot
A pro-Kremlin member of Russia's parliament was shot and wounded Wednesday in an attack on a central Moscow street, police said.
Bashir Kodzoyev, a deputy in the lower house of parliament, was wounded when his car was shot at near Red Square, a police spokesman said. Kodzoyev was hospitalized with a chest wound, the spokesman said. His driver died.
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