France

Whether it’s the one the United States, France, Russia and the International Atomic Energy Agency are offering is a different story. But the Iranian “president” has told state TV, in advance of a formal response expected to come Friday, that the basis for cooperation on the nuclear question is in place. The New York Times:
“Fortunately, [...]

Today is the day: about an hour ago, talks got underway in Vienna between Iran, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.S., Russia and France to see if an initial deal last month will indeed result in sending 75 percent of Iran’s low-enriched-uranium to Russia for reprocessing into fuel, which would be a concrete step [...]

It’s hard to know what to make of this, but The Times of London has an explosive and very detailed story claiming that Italian intelligence operatives paid bribes to Taliban fighters who ended up brutally killing and mutilating eight French soldiers in Afghanistan last year. The Italian government strenuously denies the charges. But if the [...]

In Geneva, where the U.S. delegation has arrived in advance of tomorrow’s multilateral negotiation with Iran’s nuclear program, senior U.S. diplomats set expectations for the talks in a background briefing for reporters. The key points: the disclosure of the hidden nuclear facility at Qom has “strengthened the sense of purpose and unity amongst the 5+1 [...]

I’m not in Pittsburgh, but I do have al-Jazeera English on my TV, so here’s the announcement from the leaders of the U.S., the U.K. and France, revealing the existence of (another) heretofore undisclosed nuclear facility in Iran. The facility is reportedly still under construction, and the Iranians have belatedly claimed to the International Atomic [...]

Switzerland sent officials last month to visit the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay to collect information about four detainees it’s considering accepting for resettlement, The Associated Press reports.
The men being considered are reportedly two Chinese Muslim Uighurs, an Uzbek and a Palestinian. The men the United States has been trying to relocate have all been [...]

Portugal has agreed to take two Syrians held at the U.S. military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Al Jazeera reported yesterday. The deal was apparently reached last week, but didn’t get a whole lot of attention.

Portugal is the third European Union country to accept Guantanamo prisoners from the United States, following on the heels of Ireland [...]

In an exclusive interview with Jake Tapper of ABC News, Lakhdar Boumediene said he was “tortured” while wrongly imprisoned for seven and a half years at Guantanamo Bay without charge or trial, deprived of sleep for 16 days at a time and physically abused. He eventually went on a hunger strike and was physically force-fed.
While [...]

In the midst of this confused New York Times piece on Israel’s objectives in Gaza — “Mr. Olmert has been far more careful this time to state ambiguous and modest goals for the war,” apparently, even though his defense minister says it’s an “all-out war” to the “bitter end” and from the perspective of a [...]