Colorado

Russia reassures NATO on nuclear stance

Russia’s defense minister assured NATO Thursday that Moscow was not adopting a more aggressive nuclear stance and remained committed to cooperation with the Western alliance.

“Russia still regards nuclear weapons as a deterrent,” Sergei Ivanov said at a news conference in Colorado Springs after he met with his NATO counterparts. “In no scenario is there mention of going first with the use of such weapons.”

Ivanov downplayed reports last week quoting a Russian Defense Ministry document saying Moscow may rethink its nuclear strategy in response to NATO’s “offensive military doctrine.”

Ivanov also was quoted in Moscow saying Russia did not rule out a pre-emptive attack anywhere if national interests demand it.

Joining the final sessions of a two-day NATO meeting, he stressed that such an attack would not involve nuclear weapons and said the document from his ministry had been “misreported.”

NATO officials welcomed Ivanov’s reassurances and said the alliance was pushing ahead with closer military ties with Moscow.

Syria

Officials criticize U.S. sanctions vote

The preliminary U.S. congressional approval of sanctions against Syria sparked fierce condemnation Thursday from Damascus, with one Syrian official calling it a “biased and illogical act” that would damage U.S.-Syria relations and dim chances for peace in the Middle East.

The Wednesday vote by the House International Relations Committee was a largely symbolic gesture — but one that could lead to more damaging U.S. measures, Western diplomats said.

The bill, which accuses Syria of sponsoring terrorists, seeking weapons of mass destruction and occupying Lebanon with more than 20,000 troops, passed three days after Israeli warplanes struck an alleged Palestinian militant training camp outside Damascus. The attack came a day after an Islamic Jihad bomber killed 19 people in an Israeli restaurant.

Imad Mustapha, charge d’affaires at the Syrian Embassy in Washington, called the sanctions vote “a blatant double standard that can rarely be met in international diplomacy.”

Argentina

Senate suspends Supreme Court justice

Argentina’s Senate voted overwhelmingly Thursday to suspend a controversial Supreme Court justice, the second targeted in a high court purge led by President Nestor Kirchner.

Lawmakers voted 40-18 to suspend Justice Eduardo Moline O’Connor as a prelude to planned impeachment proceedings. They accused him of misconduct, charges he has vehemently denied.

The judge was appointed by former President Carlos Menem in the 1990s. Critics say many of his rulings were politically motivated.

Legal experts say Moline O’Connor formed part of what was known as the “automatic majority” — five members of the nine-judge court who frequently ruled in favor of the government during Menem’s 1989-99 presidency.

The move in Congress to oust Moline O’Connor has increased verbal sparring between supporters of Kirchner’s attempts to overhaul the court and those who accuse him of acting with his own political motives.

Paris

Risque ad campaign draws complaints

The French don’t blink at the topless look, but an ad campaign for thong underwear geared toward young people proved too risque even here.

The campaign for Sloggi thongs drew fire from consumers and elected officials who said posters displayed throughout the country were degrading to women.

“Women are sick of being treated like merchandise,” said lawmaker Segolene Royal, who was family affairs minister in the previous Socialist government.

The company began taking down the posters Wednesday and all were gone by Thursday night.

However, Marie-Laure Nordmann, spokeswoman for the Swiss-based Triumph International, which owns Sloggi, said the company did not cede to the complaints. Rather, she said, the weeklong publicity campaign was simply over.

One poster showed a rear view of two young women, wearing only the thongs and red boxing gloves, facing off against a man in skin-tight skivvies. Another showed three women, dressed in Sloggi thongs, dancing like strippers around a pole.

Cuba

Guantanamo security comes under scrutiny

Nearly two dozen investigators are searching for possible security breaches at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station U.S. prison for terror suspects, officials said Thursday at the camp where espionage charges have heightened tensions.

Investigators from the Miami-based U.S. Southern Command reported to the island Saturday and Tuesday, the same day as five non-U.S.-born interpreters contracted by the same company that employed an American translator who has been arrested.

Sources familiar with the investigation said two more arrests might be imminent.

Investigators will try to establish how a translator already under investigation got secret clearance and was allowed onto the base, and how a second translator managed to leave with classified information.

Bolivia

Striking miners clash with troops; 2 killed

Miners angry about a proposal to export oil through Chile clashed with riot troops Thursday near the Bolivian capital. At least two people were killed and nine were hurt, authorities said.

Government troops fired tear gas to disperse about 500 miners marching through the city of El Alto. Some miners responded by hurling lighted sticks of dynamite, and one man died after a stick apparently exploded in his hand, a police spokesman said. Officials said it was unclear what caused the other death.

The protest was the latest in more than two weeks of demonstrations over the export plan, proposed by President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada.

Government officials estimate the gas exports would generate about $1.5 billion for Bolivia, South America’s poorest nation. But union and indigenous leaders have condemned the plan in part because it calls for the natural gas to be shipped via Chile.