Iran

Leader: Report shows lack of nuclear threat

Shrugging off a U.N. nuclear report’s criticism of his country, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami asserted Wednesday that the report dispelled suspicions Tehran was seeking atomic arms.

The International Atomic Energy Agency report said it found no evidence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program. But the agency also suggested it could not rule out such ambitions until it sifted through new information made available.

The document, released Monday, listed numerous cases of covert nuclear activities,, but the document also praised Iran for displaying “active cooperation and openness.”

“This proves our claim and removes the possibility for some powers to misuse the situation against us,” Khatami said, apparently staking out what would be Iran’s argument at the IAEA meeting next week.

Chile

Companies agree to logging restrictions

Chile’s two largest wood products companies have agreed to stop logging trees in the South American nation’s native forests, bowing to an international pressure campaign by United States and Chilean environmentalists, it was announced Wednesday.

The Santiago-based companies, CMPC-Mininco and Arauco, have agreed not to log the alerce, the evergreen araucaria and other endangered species in the 1 million acres of native forests they own, said Aaron Sanger of ForestEthics, the San Francisco group that helped coordinate the campaign.