United Nation: Talks with Iraq set to resume next month

Iraq’s foreign minister has agreed to meet with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan next month in a resumption of their dialogue, the United Nations said Monday.

Annan expects a discussion on the return of weapons inspectors to Iraq, said Annan spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri and Annan will meet March 7. If more meetings are needed, they will be held after April 5 following an Arab League summit, Dujarric said.

The return of inspectors after three years is a key demand of the United States, which has accused Iraq of trying to rebuild its banned weapons programs and of supporting terrorism.

“We think the conversation should be very short,” said Ric Grenell, U.S. spokesman at the United Nations. “The Iraqis know that we wait for them to comply with the U.N. resolutions.”

Moldova: Language requirement in schools brings outcry

Moldova’s education minister apologized Monday for an abortive attempt to make schoolchildren in the former Soviet republic learn Russian, a measure that prompted huge protests for the past six weeks.

Addressing some 4,000 protesters outside government headquarters in Chisinau, Ilie Vancea suggested his decision last month to make Russian mandatory from second grade was made under pressure from hard-liners within his Communist Party, which dominates the government and favors close ties with Russia.

“I made a mistake,” Vancea said. “I should have been stronger when it came to sacred things: our language and our history.”

The measure touched off daily protests in a country where two-thirds of the people are of Romanian descent. In the Soviet era, Russian was mandatory in all schools and authorities discouraged the use of Moldovan, a Romance language virtually identical to Romanian.

Canada: Suspect in slayings ‘shocked’ at charges

A man charged with murdering two of 50 women who have disappeared from the Vancouver area over the past two decades was shocked by the accusation, his lawyer said Monday.

Robert Pickton, 52, was not asked to enter a plea during the two-minute hearing in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, where he was formally charged with murdering Sereena Abotsway and Mona Wilson.

Peter Ritchie, Pickton’s lawyer, said he expected his client to seek bail “in due course.” The next court appearance was set for April 2.

“When a person gets arrested for something like this, they’re completely shocked by it. That’s a fair description” of Pickton’s reaction, Ritchie said.

Pickton, a pig farmer who with a brother operated a nearby drinking club frequented by bikers and prostitutes, was charged with murdering Abotsway between July and early February and Wilson between December and early February.

Nepal: Army strike kills 76 communist rebels

Soldiers killed 76 rebels in a massive weekend strike in Nepal’s mountainous midwest where the communist guerrillas staged their deadliest attack ever a week ago, the military said Monday.

The deaths around Kalikot brought the toll on both sides over the past nine days of fighting to 342, the military said.

Kalikot is where the rebels killed 137 soldiers and policemen on Feb. 17 in the bloodiest attack since the rebels began fighting in 1996 to abolish the constitutional monarchy in this Himalayan kingdom.

More than 2,600 people have been killed since the rebels, inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Tse-tung, began fighting to create a communist state.