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World in brief

Report: New Iran chief wasn't captor

By wire services
Published July 29, 2005

WASHINGTON - A month after some former American hostages in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran asserted that the president-elect of Iran was among their captors in 1979, government officials say they have turned up no evidence to support that claim.

Detailed analyses by the CIA comparing photos from 1979 of an Iranian captor who resembles the president-elect, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, with recent pictures of Ahmadinejad clearly showed that the photos were of two different men, the New York Times reported, quoting the unnamed officials.

Officially the investigation remained open, and on Thursday the White House released a statement saying, "Mr. Ahmadinejad was a leader of the student movement that organized the attack on the embassy and the taking of American hostages." But the statement added that the government still did not know whether he "explicitly was one of the hostage takers."

MANAGUA, Nicaragua - A volcano on an island in a lake in southwestern Nicaragua erupted at least four times Thursday, spewing ash that fell some 10 miles away, officials said.

The 5,282-foot tall Concepcion Volcano is on the island of Ometepe in Lake Nicaragua that is popular with adventure tourists. No one was injured.

HARARE, Zimbabwe - The government said Thursday it has completed its crackdown on slums and street traders, but the opposition insisted that demolitions and beatings are continuing and one of its top officials had been arrested.

The demolitions have sparked domestic and international criticism, with a report by a U.N. envoy condemning the crackdown that has left about 700,000 without homes or jobs. The envoy said 2.4-million more have been affected.

BEIJING - The top U.S. envoy held his longest meeting yet Thursday with his North Korean counterpart and said he hoped they would soon be able to draft a joint document that would signal progress in talks aimed at curbing the North's nuclear ambitions.

Such a document of "agreed principles" would indicate a new level of dialogue - and came amid renewed promises for progress in the negotiations, which today will become the longest round of nuclear talks between the two nations in more than a decade.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill and others have stressed that they do not expect any breakthroughs.

HEZBOLLAH: Iranian cadres are training Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon, a State Department official told Congress on Thursday. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch told the House International Relations Committee that there is "a continuing covert Syrian presence there" despite the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon. Meanwhile, Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora pledged to protect Hezbollah, saying the Lebanese government considers it "an honest and natural expression" of resistance to Israeli aggression and threats.

[Last modified July 29, 2005, 00:52:10]