Washington

Economic powers fight over debt aid for Iraq, poor nations

The United States and its major economic allies struggled Saturday to resolve deep differences over how best to relieve the heavy debt burden for Iraq and the poorest countries.

Debt relief and broader topics of international finance topped the agenda for finance officials attending committee meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

A Bush administration plan essentially would mean the poorest countries would not have to repay existing loans. New loans, though, would be cut by the amount of increased debt forgiveness those countries received.

A competing British proposal would pay for expanded debt relief by revaluing the IMF’s gold reserves according to world prices and by getting wealthy nations to commit more money.

Phoenix

FBI interviewing Muslims, others before third debate

With the final presidential debate in Tempe less than two weeks away, the FBI is increasing efforts to interview Phoenix-area residents, including Muslims, as part of a nationwide plan to prevent a terrorist attack before the Nov. 2 election, agents said.

Susan Herskovits, the FBI’s spokeswoman in Phoenix, said this latest push aimed to increase intelligence by contacting as many people as possible — not just Muslims.

“We’re worried about an attack on American soil,” Herskovits told the East Valley Tribune. “It isn’t really targeting any group.”

Mississippi

White supremacist group cancels booth at state fair

A white supremacist group has canceled plans to have a booth at the Mississippi state fair after a reputed Ku Klux Klansman under investigation for the 1964 slayings of three civil rights workers said he had no intention of stopping by it, a state official says.

Nationalist Movement leader Richard Barrett’s plans to be at the fair and his promotion of Edgar Ray Killen as the booth’s featured attraction triggered protests earlier this week by the NAACP and local leaders. Some critics called for a boycott of the 12-day state fair, which begins Wednesday.

Betty Jo Killen, in an interview with The Associated Press, said her 79-year-old husband never told Barrett he would attend the fair. Killen was tried in 1967 on federal conspiracy charges related to the killings of the three civil rights workers.