Iran is talking about talking about its nuclear ambitions again. Next stop: Baghdad.
Egypt has banned 10 candidates from running for its Presidency.
The UN has voted to send unarmed individuals to watch the violent "cease-fire in Syria, as 11 more Syrians were killed today.
The head of the Supreme Presidential Election Commission, Farouk Sultan, declined to give details on the reasons for their disqualification, but said the 10 have 48 hours to appeal. Thirteen others had their candidacy approved, including former Arab League chief Amr Moussa.
The final list of approved candidates will be announced before the end of the month.
If upheld, the decision would redraw the electoral landscape and threaten to create a new political crisis less than six weeks before the presidential elections scheduled for May 23 and 24. Suleiman, Shater and Ismail are considered among the front-runners in the race.
The elections in May will be the first presidential polls since the ouster of Mr. Mubarak in a popular uprising 14 months ago.
If no candidate secures more than 50 percent of the vote, a run-off election will take place June 16 and 17.
Final election results will be announced June 21. Egypt's military rulers who took over from Mr. Mubarak had promised to hand over power to a civilian leader by the end of June.
Presidential candidates will be allowed to begin campaigning April 30.
Talks in Istanbul between world powers and Iran over Tehran's controversial nuclear program ended Saturday with a commitment to meet again in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, May 23.
After nearly 10 hours of talks, both sides said the meeting was held in a “positive and constructive” atmosphere.
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton described the discussions as “constructive” and “useful,” adding the meeting in Baghdad would be part of a “step-by-step” approach. U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications, Ben Rhodes, called the talks a “positive first step.” He said the agreement for the meeting in May is an additional positive sign.
Iran's chief negotiator, Saeed Jalili, said Saturday's talks “saw important common ground being developed.” He said that “various issues for cooperation and issues for talks were agreed upon for the next meeting.”
But apart from both sides recognizing the importance of abiding by the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and acknowledging Tehran's right to develop nuclear energy, there were no other details of what common ground was achieved.
Saturday's talks between diplomats from Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany were the first since a previous round of talks collapsed 15 months ago, also in Istanbul, amid mutual recriminations.
A VOA correspondent in Turkey said Iran also held "bilateral" talks with China, Russia and Turkey, but turned down a meeting with the United States. He added that, despite that snub, some Western powers believe Iran has shown more of a willingness to discuss nuclear issues than it did at last year's talks.
“They are saying that Iranians are sort of engaging with them and this is what we didn't have back in 2011 when they first met in Istanbul.”
Saturday's meetings came at a time of increased international pressure on Tehran. New U.S. and European Union economic sanctions against Iran are due to go into effect July 1, while Israel has warned it may take military action. U.S. President Barack Obama has also warned the latest diplomatic efforts are the last chance for diplomacy to work.
Observers say next month's meeting in Baghdad will be a key test of those efforts, as the talks are expected to start focusing on concrete measures to allay international concern over Iran's nuclear program.
China and Russia joined the rest of the United Nations Security Council Saturday to authorize deployment of an advance team of observers to Syria to monitor a fragile cease-fire between the government and armed opposition forces.
In a unanimous vote Saturday, the Security Council approved a resolution that gives the go ahead for a small group of up to 30 unarmed military monitors to be deployed to Syria, where the shaky truce held Saturday despite reports of government shelling in the flashpoint city of Homs.
The monitors are to report on implementation of a peace plan, brokered by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, that calls for troop withdrawals from urban areas, for the Damascus government to end its violent crackdown on dissent, and for an end to hostilities by opposition rebels.
In a statement Saturday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reiterated that “it is the government of Syria which has the primary responsibility to stop the violence and withdraw its forces.” He also announced that the U.N. will host a meeting in Geneva on April 20 to discuss dealing with at least 1 million people displaced inside Syria and in neighboring countries.
Britain's ambassador, Mark Lyall Grant, noted that Resolution 2042 is clear about the commitments both the Syrian government and the opposition must fulfill. He said 25 monitors have been identified and could begin arriving in Syria within 24 hours now that their mission has been authorized.
But U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice cautioned their deployment would be a test to see if it is possible to send a larger observer mission to Syria, once the secretary-general presents a blueprint and if its clear the truce is holding and Damascus is cooperating.
Mr. Ban has until Wednesday to present the council with his recommendations for a full monitoring mission.
Russia, a strong supporter of Syria, said the peace plan was at a “critical juncture.” Ambassador Vitaly Churkin urged both sides to refrain from violence.
Bassam Imadi, of the opposition Syrian National Council, said international monitors can determine the source of the latest bloodshed — in his view, President Bashar al-Assad and his government.
“It will mean that those observers that are going to go to Syria to monitor the situation are going to get a very important report that will prove that the Syrian authorities are not stopping fire.”
Meanwhile, rights groups and activists said at least 11 people were killed by government troops across Syria Saturday. They said rebel fighters also appeared to be ignoring the truce in some areas. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported two government soldiers were killed in a rebel attack in the southern Dara'a province. The government repeated its claim Saturday that “armed terrorists” are responsible for such attacks, and said they also have led to civilian casualties.
The Syrian government had said it would respect the cease-fire but would respond to attacks by armed militants. A report Saturday by state-run media blamed “an escalation of terrorist groups” for rising military and civilian deaths.
The U.N. says more than 9,000 people have been killed in Syria's unrest over the past year. VoA.
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