Iran Nuclear: The European Union says Iran must halt all its nuclear research now, or face action by the United Nations Security Council. European officials say Iran's recent move to close its facilities to International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors heightened suspicions that Tehran has launched a secret weapons-building program. The E.U.'s message will be delivered to the I.A.E.A. during today's (Wednesday's) meeting of the U.N. agency's board of governors, who are in Vienna discussing the Iran controversy and possible sanctions by the U.N. Security Council.
Iraq: Iraqi police say a roadside bomb blast hit an Interior Ministry security convoy in central Baghdad today (Wednesday), killing at least two people. Earlier, a security patrol found the bound bodies of 18 young men in an abandoned vehicle in (Amiriyah) a predominantly Sunni Muslim neighborhood of the capital. Iraqi officials say two of the men appear to have been shot, and most had their hands bound and were blindfolded. They say most of the victims had been hanged recently.
US-Taiwan-China: An influential U.S. senator has warned Taiwan that the United States might not significantly come to its aid if it provokes a conflict with China through unnecessary political rhetoric. Senator John Warner told the Senate Armed Services Committee (Tuesday) that if a conflict were precipitated by what he called "inappropriate and wrongful politics," he is not sure the United States would come full force to Taiwan's rescue. Warner (Republican senator from Virginia) is the committee's chairman and one of the leading voices on military issues in Congress.
Malaysia Health: Malaysia's Health Ministry says that hand-foot-and-mouth disease in the eastern state of Sarawak, on Borneo island, is now an epidemic. Health Minister Chua Soi Lek said today (Wednesday) that more than three-thousand people, mainly children, have been infected with the disease this year. The minister said that all kindergartens in Sarawak have been closed to stop the spread of the disease. Four children on the island who died recently are suspected of having contracted the illness.
Listen to our World News for details