Toronto: Canadian, U.S. troops allowed to cross border

Canada and the United States have signed a military cooperation agreement that allows each country’s troops to cross the border in an emergency, officials said Monday.

Faced with threats such as the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the North American neighbors expanded their military cooperation beyond their partnership in NATO and Canada’s role in the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, in Colorado.

Under the agreement, either country can request military help from the other. Any American troops operating in Canada would be under the command of a Canadian officer, while any Canadian troops operating south of the border would be under U.S. command.

Iran: U.S. journalists to be fingerprinted

Iran will fingerprint U.S. journalists arriving in Iran in response to American officials imposing similar requirements on Iranian visitors, state-run radio said Monday.

Tehran radio quoted Gen. Hossein Abadi as calling the decision “a reciprocal move.” He said the order did not apply to journalists from other countries.

Certain American journalists could be excluded from the restrictions, according to a statement faxed to The Associated Press on Monday. It did not elaborate.

Reformist legislator Rajabali Mazrouei criticized the decision, saying Iran should not copy America’s “mistakes,” the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

The U.S. National Security Entry Exit Registration System created after the Sept. 11 attacks authorizes American border officials to fingerprint and photograph people who were born in or are citizens of five countries accused by the U.S. government of having terrorism links. Those countries are Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and Syria.

United nations: Security Council lifts sanctions in Angola

The Security Council lifted 9-year-old sanctions against Angola’s UNITA movement on Monday, welcoming efforts by the government and the former rebel group to end the country’s civil war.

The 15-member council voted unanimously to lift the sanctions, first imposed in 1993 in hopes of forcing the rebels to end fighting that began after Angola won independence from Portugal in 1975.

Two peace deals failed before the United Nations brokered a deal in 1994 after four years of negotiations.

But the rebels and government forces returned to war in 1998 after UNITA repeatedly postponed plans to surrender areas under their control.

The civil war ended with the signing of a cease-fire on April 4, shortly after the army killed longtime UNITA rebel leader Jonas Savimbi.

Tokyo: Early snowfall causes flurry of injuries

The Japanese capital got its earliest blanket of snow in a decade on Monday, snarling air, road and rail travel and causing accidents that injured more than 200 people.

The Meteorological Agency recorded 0.4 inch of slush on the ground across the city and said temperatures hovered just above freezing.

The last time Tokyo got snow this early was in December 1991, when about the same amount fell, said agency spokesman Masakazu Tazaki. The snow stopped falling in the capital by Monday evening.

Utsunomiya, a city north of Tokyo, got nearly seven inches of snow, the most there for the month of December since 1912.

Public broadcaster NHK reported that 208 people in the Tokyo metropolitan area were injured in accidents due to the snow and the resulting slippery streets and sidewalks.

Dozens of domestic flights were delayed or canceled at Tokyo’s Haneda airport, where crews worked all morning to clear runways of snow and ice.