Iranian nuclear crisis

Iranian nuclear crisis
LONDON -- The United States and other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council agreed today that Iran should be hauled before the council over its disputed nuclear program. China and Russia, longtime allies and trading partners of Iran, signed on to a statement that calls on the U.N. nuclear watchdog to transfer the Iran dossier to the Security Council, which could impose sanctions or take other harsh action. Foreign ministers from those nations, plus the United States, Britain and France, also said the Security Council should wait until March to take up the Iran case, after a formal report on Tehran's activities from the watchdog agency. Any of the five permanent members of the Security Council, all nuclear powers themselves, can veto an action voted by the full council membership. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other foreign ministers discussed Iran at a private dinner at the home of British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw.
Birth defects studied
Nearly 8 million children each year are born with birth defects that are genetic in origin, and 70 percent of them could be prevented or mitigated, according to the first worldwide study commissioned by the March of Dimes. In the absence of treatment, at least 3.3 million of the children die before age 5, while 3.2 million are disabled for life, according to the study released Monday. "Our report identifies for the first time the severe and previously hidden global toll of birth defects," said Dr. Jennifer L. Howse, March of Dimes president. Incidences range from a high of 82 birth defects per 1,000 births in Sudan to a low of 39.7 per 1,000 in France. More than 94 percent of birth defects and deaths occur in middle- and low-income countries, according to Dr. Christopher P. Howson of the March of Dimes, a co-author of the report. Five common birth defects accounted for about 26 percent of the total in 2001, the most recent year for which data were available: congenital heart defects (1 million cases); neural tube defects, such as spina bifida (324,000 cases); thalassemia and sickle cell disease (308,000 cases); Down syndrome (217,000 cases); and glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency (177,000 cases).
Hamas appeals for aid
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Hamas militants and the Palestinian president appealed for continued aid to the struggling Palestinian Authority on Monday, saying the Palestinian people are in desperate need. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas implored European donors to avoid a threatened cut in aid, which could devastate an already battered economy, force the Palestinian Authority into a fiscal crisis and cost tens of thousands of government workers their jobs. A top Hamas leader promised that aid would go only to ordinary Palestinians -- not to attacks on Israel, which Hamas refuses to recognize -- and said a Hamas government would be willing to have its spending monitored. In Lebanon, a senior Hamas official said an aid cut would not affect Hamas policy.
Needle found in soup
BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- A supermarket chain pulled soup cans from the shelves of its stores after a family reported finding a sewing needle in a sealed can of minestrone, officials said. The incident was the fourth report of needles or pins found in food purchased from stores in the Bethlehem area in the past two weeks. The soup was purchased Saturday at a Giant Food Store in Wind Gap. Company spokesman Dennis Hopkins said store personnel pulled cans with similar lot numbers from all stores as a precaution. Giant, owned by the Dutch company Ahold Ltd., operates 255 supermarkets in six states: Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, New York and Ohio. Last week, at another Giant store near Bethlehem, a man reported finding a rusty sewing needle in a loaf of bread.
Children were poisoned,authorities suspect
DE QUEEN, Ark. -- A woman accused of murdering her three children was distraught over the breakup of her marriage and may have fed the youngsters pesticide before smothering them, police said Monday. Eleazar Paula Mendez, 43, pleaded innocent to three counts of murder and was jailed without bail and placed under a suicide watch. The judge also ordered a psychological evaluation. Mendez, 43, told investigators she tried to kill herself Friday by swallowing ant poison, prosecutor Tom Cooper said. She said the children asked her to kill them, too, he said. "I blessed them and then I suffocated them," Mendez told investigators, according to Cooper, who said he believes Mendez poisoned the children before suffocating them but questions other parts of her account. The children's bodies were sent to the state crime lab for autopsies. Police found 7-year-old Elvis and 5-year-old twins Samantha and Samuel side-by-side on a bed in their home Saturday after a call from their worried father, Arturo Morales, 37, who lives in New York.
Combined dispatches
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