Nation & World Digest

Iran says it will try 3 American hikers

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran said Monday a court will try three Americans who wandered across the border from Iraq last July and became ensnared in an increasingly bitter standoff with the West over Tehran’s nuclear program.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki did not say when the trial would begin or even what the Americans were charged with, other than that they had “suspicious aims.” Last month, Iran’s chief prosecutor said they were accused of spying.

In Washington, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the Iranian move was “totally unfounded” and appealed anew to authorities to release the Americans.

Missouri officials: Figures for food stamps inflated

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Missouri acknowledged Monday that it reported inflated numbers of food-stamp recipients to the federal government, calling into question millions of dollars of bonuses paid to the state for running one of the nation’s top-flight programs.

The Department of Social Services said a computer- programming error has consistently exaggerated the figures submitted since September 2002.

For example: the agency reported more than 1.1 million food-stamp recipients this September. It now says the actual number may be closer to 855,000.

Missouri officials said the error did not result in any ineligible people receiving benefits, and the amount of benefits paid to lower-income households was correct.

Reports: Japan delays decision to move US base

TOKYO — Media reports today said Japan has delayed until next year a decision on the relocation of a major U.S. military base on the southern island of Okinawa that’s at the center of a growing row between Tokyo and Washington.

Kyodo News Agency said Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama had put off a decision on the future of Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, attributing unnamed government sources, and the mass circulation newspaper Asahi Shimbun said the decision had been postponed until May.

The dispute over Futenma has strained ties between the two allies and trading partners, and the U.S. had hoped for a decision by year-end.

Okinawa residents complain about base-related noise, pollution and crime, and many want the airfield closed and its functions moved off the island entirely.

300 guests moved from luxury hotel after illnesses

MIAMI — About 300 guests have been moved from a luxury Miami hotel after Legionnaires’ disease struck at least three former guests since October.

Health officials said Monday that one former guest at the EPIC Hotel died at the end of October after leaving for a cruise. The other two guests fell ill in November.

Investigators found the hotel installed a water filter powerful enough to remove chlorine from its city-supplied water, encouraging bacterial growth.

Current guests were sent to nearby hotels Saturday to prevent potential contact with the bacterial disease that can be transmitted by contaminated water vapor.

Castro turns cool toward US, Obama

HAVANA — Fidel Castro says President Barack Obama’s “friendly smile and African-American face” are hiding Washington’s sinister intentions for Latin America — more evidence of a new cooling in U.S.-Cuba relations after a thaw had seemed possible just months ago.

In a letter to Hugo Chavez that the Venezuelan president read at the close of a summit of leftist Latin American nations Monday, Castro said the U.S. “empire is on the offensive again” in the region.

He blamed Washington for a military coup that toppled leftist President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras in June and criticized a U.S. agreement with Colombia that allows U.S. troops greater access to seven of that country’s military bases.

“They are obviously the real intentions of the empire, this time under the friendly smile and African-American face of Barack Obama,” Castro said.

Researchers find increase in near-sightedness

For an increasing number of Americans, life’s a blur.

That’s according to a population-based study published Monday showing that rates of myopia — difficulty seeing distant objects — are soaring. The trend is matched in many other countries, causing eye doctors to wonder what could be causing this decline in human vision.

Some suspect both an increase in close-up work time (computer use) and a decrease in time spent out of doors.

Combined dispatches