Iran nuclear talks moving to Moscow: Six world powers holding nuclear talks with Iran in Baghdad agreed Thursday to hold another round of negotiations in Moscow next month to try to resolve international concerns about the Iranian nuclear program.
In Egypt, Muslim Brotherhood claims early lead in the vote counting after two days of historical vote. This according to exit polls. The reliability of the Brotherhood's polls could not be confirmed. Regional television channels, citing their own exit polls, also placed Morsi as the top finisher, with rivals Ahmed Shafiq and Hamdeen Sabahi vying for second place.
Pakistan on Thursday rejected U.S. criticism of the jailing of Shakeel Afridi, a Pakistani doctor who helped the United States track down Osama bin Laden, while a U.S. congressional panel cut aid to protest his imprisonment.
Details after the break.
Iran
Six world powers holding nuclear talks with Iran in Baghdad agreed Thursday to hold another round of negotiations in Moscow next month to try to resolve international concerns about the Iranian nuclear program.
After wrapping up two days of talks in the Iraqi capital, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the two sides found "some common ground" but also had "significant differences." She told reporters Iran and the six-nation group agreed to more talks in the Russian capital on June 18 and 19 to "expand that common ground."
Ashton represented the world powers in the Baghdad talks with Iran's chief negotiator Saeed Jalili, whom she met earlier Thursday. She described the talks as "very intense" and said Iran declared a "readiness" to address international concerns about its enrichment of uranium to 20 percent purity.
Western powers want that activity to stop, fearing Iran could quickly upgrade its uranium to the 90 percent purity needed for nuclear weapons. Iran wants an easing of international sanctions in return for any concession on enrichment work, which it says is meant for medical research and generating electricity.
Speaking after the Baghdad talks, Jalili emphasized what he called "the absolute right" of Iran to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes. He also said the nuclear dispute can be solved only through dialogue. Jalili said experts of the two sides will be in contact to prepare for the Moscow meeting.
The world powers include the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany.
Earlier, EU spokesman Michael Mann told VOA that the six nations presented a "clear" proposal calling on Iran to address international concerns about its nuclear program in return for "reciprocal measures" that the group believes will be attractive to Tehran. He said it is important for Iran to engage in the negotiations "seriously."
Iran's delegation in Baghdad offered its own proposal for ending the dispute. Iranian state media said Thursday that offer is more comprehensive than that of the world powers and accused the United States of being unwilling to express a position on it.
Diplomats said the world powers offered Iran incentives to stop production of highly enriched uranium and transfer the material abroad in exchange for nuclear fuel for its research reactor in Tehran. Iranian diplomats expressed disappointment with that offer, complaining that it makes too many demands of Iran without enough benefit.
In an interview with VOA, Middle East analyst Shahram Akbarzadeh said Iran may make a few concessions in a bid to ease economic sanctions.
"If by giving in to the international community slightly, if by taking one step back allows the sanctions to be cancelled, then Iran would do that," said Akbarzadeh. "But I don't think you can expect Iran to be fully cooperative with the international community."
Egypt
As Egyptians wrapped up two days of voting in a historic presidential election, early indicators showed the Muslim Brotherhood's Islamist candidate taking the lead among the five presumed front-runners.
A spokesman for the Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi said Thursday the candidate was ahead in nationwide exit polls conducted by the organization's campaign workers. All five front-runners voiced optimism about their prospects even as several acknowledged Morsi’s relatively strong early showing.
The reliability of the Brotherhood's polls could not be confirmed. Regional television channels, citing their own exit polls, also placed Morsi as the top finisher, with rivals Ahmed Shafiq and Hamdeen Sabahi vying for second place.
Final results of the first round are to be announced Tuesday. A runoff is scheduled for June 16-17 between the two top finishers. The winner will be announced June 21.
After high turnout on the first day, Egyptian media said it only reached 40 percent on Thursday, with ballot counting beginning immediately after the polls closed. The government had declared Thursday a holiday to make it easier for public sector employees to cast their ballots.
Election monitors said the first day of polling was largely free of fraud and violence with voters braving long lines and heat.
After six decades under authoritarian, military-backed rule, Egypt's 50 million eligible voters are freely choosing a leader for the first time in their history.
Morsi and Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh are the leading Islamist contenders. Shafiq, a former prime minister, and former foreign minister Amr Moussa are both secularists rooted in former President Hosni Mubarak's old guard.
Sabahi is a leftist who had been a dark horse but gained steadily in opinion polls over the past week, attracting Egyptians who want neither an Islamist or a former regime figure.
Aboul Fotouh's moderate, inclusive platform has won him the support of some liberals, leftists and minority Christians. As a dissident former Brotherhood leader, he has also won the backing of Egypt's ultraconservative Salafis, whose candidates won a quarter of the votes in recent parliamentary elections.
Morsi entered the race late but has benefited from the Brotherhood's powerful political machine. His victory would likely mean a greater emphasis on religion in government.
Aboul Fotouh argues that the Brotherhood should go back to its roots in preaching and charity and get out of party politics.
Two of their secularist rivals, Moussa and Shafik, are campaigning as alternatives to Islamist domination, voices of experience and stability and the firm hands needed to blunt the lawlessness that has followed Mr. Mubarak's ouster.
Shafik has the support of Egypt's powerful military that has ruled the country in the 15 months since a popular revolt swept the former president from power.
A victory for one of the secularist candidates would mark a significant turn from parliamentary elections just six months ago when more than 70 percent of voters cast ballots for Islamist parties.
Whoever wins faces massive challenges - the economy has collapsed as the key tourism industry dried up, crime has increased and labor strikes have proliferated.
Pakistan
Pakistan on Thursday rejected U.S. criticism of the jailing of Shakeel Afridi, a Pakistani doctor who helped the United States track down Osama bin Laden, while a U.S. congressional panel cut aid to protest his imprisonment.
A court in Pakistan's Khyber tribal region Wednesday sentenced Afridi to 33 years in prison for treason. He was accused of running a fake vaccination campaign to help the CIA obtain DNA samples of the al-Qaida leader and family members to confirm his presence at a compound in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad. U.S. special forces killed bin Laden during a covert raid in the garrison city last May.
A Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Moazzam Ahmad Khan told reporters Thursday the Afridi case "will be decided in accordance with Pakistani laws and by the Pakistani courts." He added that the U.S. and Pakistan need to "respect each other’s legal processes and the judgements by the courts."
Under Pakistan's tribal system, Afridi did not have access to a lawyer. U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Wednesday that the United States continues to see no basis for the charges against the doctor or his incarceration.
Earlier this year, U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Afridi had been very helpful in tracking down bin Laden and called on Pakistani authorities to release him. Panetta called his arrest a “real mistake.”
In Washington Thursday, a U.S. Senate subcommittee voted to cut aid to Pakistan by $33 million, $1 million for every year of Afridi's 33-year prison sentence.
Senators Carl Levin, a Democrat from Michigan, and John McCain, a Republican from Arizona, called Thursday for an immediate pardon for Afridi, saying in a joint statement that his sentence was "shocking and outrageous" while his help in tracking down bin Laden was "a courageous, heroic and patriotic act."
Afridi's conviction comes amid deteriorating relations between the United States and Pakistan, which are in talks to reopen NATO supply lines to troops in Afghanistan that Pakistan shut down last November after U.S. airstrikes mistakenly killed 24 Pakistani troops.
Pakistan has demanded an apology for the cross-border attack and an end U.S. drone strikes on Pakistani soil.
On Tuesday, the Senate subcommittee voted to cut aid to Pakistan in President Barack Obama's budget proposal for next year by more than half, and threatened to withhold even more money unless the NATO supply routes are reopened.
The panel voted $1 billion in aid to Pakistan - a 58 percent cut in the level proposed by the president.
All content based on VOA News reports.
Stumble It!
