Washington, D.C.

Bush adviser credits Kerry’s Iraq vote with win

Reflecting on how he delivered President Bush his second term, White House political adviser Karl Rove admitted Sunday that John Kerry’s vote for, then against, funding in Iraq and Afghanistan was the “gift that kept on giving.”

The deft strategy of Rove, whom Bush calls the architect of his re-election campaign, is credited with helping move the nation from the 49 percent to 49 percent stalemate of the 2000 election to a 51 percent to 48 percent split in the Republicans’ favor.

“The country is still close, but it has moved in a Republican direction, and this election confirmed that,” Rove said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Iran

Militants using Iran’s border to move recruits into Iraq

Islamic extremists have been moving supplies and new recruits from Iran into Iraq, say Iraqi Kurdish and Western officials, though it’s unclear whether Tehran is covertly backing them or whether militants are simply taking advantage of the porous border.

Iranian involvement with extremist groups in the Iraqi insurgency would be potentially explosive, especially given the history of U.S.-Iranian animosity. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said recently Iran was engaged in “a lot of meddling” in Iraq but gave no details.

Iran has confirmed that loyalists of the al-Qaida-linked Ansar al-Islam group illegally entered Iran from Afghanistan after the start of the U.S.-led 2001 war to oust the Taliban. But Iran’s government has repeatedly denied it is backing the radicals.

Macedonia

Referendum fails to abolish ethnic autonomy

Macedonia’s national referendum Sunday on abolishing local autonomy for the country’s ethnic Albanian minority failed, authorities said.

The State Election Commission said turnout was only 26.2 percent — well below the 50 percent needed. Although a large majority of the ballots cast were in favor of revoking Albanian autonomy, the initiative collapsed because of the low turnout, said Zoran Tanevski of the Election Commission.

Defense Minister Vlado Buckovski hailed the outcome as a victory for the government that earlier this year pushed through a law redrawing municipal districts to make ethnic Albanians a dominant force in 16 out of 84 districts.

Iran

Preliminary agreement reached on nuclear issue

Hoping to avoid a U.N. showdown, Iran and the European Union’s three big powers reached a preliminary agreement over Tehran’s nuclear program, Iran’s chief negotiator said Sunday.

Meanwhile, lawmakers in Iran’s conservative-dominated parliament pushed for a bill banning the production of nuclear weapons in a gesture of building more international trust.

The preliminary agreement worked out in Paris with Britain, France and Germany could be finalized in the next few days, chief Iranian negotiator Hossein Mousavian told state-run Iranian television from the French capital, where talks wrapped up Saturday.