Tuesday, July 24, 2007


Jul. 24, 2007 (Xinhua News Agency delivered by Newstex) -- Xinhua world news summary at 0030 GMT, July 25

MOSCOW -- A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman said on Tuesday that the Kosovo issue remains the exclusive jurisdiction of the United Nations Security Council, and any other international entity cannot substitute it.

'UN Security Council resolution 1244 remains valid as the only legitimate foundation of the negotiating process. Only the UN Security Council can invalidate or amend this resolution,' Itar-Tass news agency quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin as saying. (Russia-UN-Kosovo)

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VIENNA -- Olli Heinonen, deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Tuesday in Vienna after talks with Iran's deputy national security chief Javad Vaeidi that the IAEA would send an inspectors team to Iran early next week to visit the site of a heavy-water nuclear reactor in Arak, Iran.

The talks aimed at working out a plan 'on clarifying the open issues associated with the scope and content of Iran's (uranium) enrichment program.' (IAEA-Iran-Nuclear)

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WARSAW -- Poland and the United States remain undeterred by Russian opposition to Washington's plans to build a missile defense system in eastern Europe, Deputy Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski, Poland's chief negotiator in talks on a U.S.anti-missile shield, said on Tuesday.

In an interview with foreign media, Waszczykowski said that Russia has shown a determination to block the planned missile defense project, most recently by suspending its membership in a key European arms control treaty. (US-Poland-Russia)

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MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday said Britain's demand that Russia amend its Constitution to extradite a main suspect in the poisoning case of Alexander Litvinenko is 'a vestige of colonial thinking,' news agencies reported.

'What they are proposing is obviously a vestige of colonial thinking,' RIA-Novosti news agency quoted Putin as saying at a meeting with youth organizations at a presidential residence outside Moscow. (Russia-UK-Spy)

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WASHINGTON -- The United States and Iran had 'difficult discussions' during their second round of ambassador-level talks over the security situation in Iraq, U.S. ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker said Tuesday.

The Tuesday talks between Crocker and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Kazemi Qomi were hosted by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in his offices inside Baghdad's fortified Green Zone. (US-Iran-Talks)

Newstex ID: XIN-0001-18377847


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