Austria

Iran offers report on atomic program

Iran has delivered an initial report on its nuclear program to the U.N. atomic watchdog, a key step ahead of an agency meeting next month to assess suspicions that it is covertly trying to make weapons, the agency said Saturday.

The Tehran regime handed over the dossier on Friday to the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the documents “should provide broader information about Iran’s nuclear activities,” IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said.

The Vienna-based agency will work to assess the “correctness and completeness” of the declaration, and IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei will deliver a report to the IAEA’s 35-nation board of governors when it meets June 14, Gwozdecky said.

Afghanistan

General to review jails amid report of deaths

A U.S. brigadier general will review the military’s secretive prisons in Afghanistan, the Army announced Saturday, as officials in Washington revealed they were looking into the deaths of two more Afghans here.

Brig. Gen. Charles H. Jacoby, deputy operational commander at the U.S. military’s main base at Bagram, north of Kabul, will carry out the “top to bottom” review and deliver a report by mid-June, spokesman Lt. Col. Tucker Mansager said.

The overall commander of the 20,000 U.S.-led forces pursuing Taliban and al-Qaida militants in Afghanistan, Lt. Gen. David Barno, ordered the review earlier this month in response to the growing scandal about prisoner abuse in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Tunisia

Gadhafi leaves summit over peace efforts

Arab leaders convened their annual summit Saturday to discuss condemning terrorism, reiterating calls for Arab-Israeli peace and putting Arab nations on the road to political and economic reforms advocated by the United States.

But the opening session was overshadowed by the walkout of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who criticized peace efforts and threatened to pull his country out of the 22-member Arab League. Eight other Arab leaders failed to show up.

How can this summit convene while there are two Arab presidents in jail?” Gadhafi asked, referring to Saddam Hussein and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who has been holed up in the West Bank.