Iran postpones nuclear talks

Iran postpones nuclear talks

TEHRAN, Iran

Iran will not have talks with the West over its nuclear program until late August to “punish” world powers for imposing tougher sanctions against the country, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday.

He also vowed that Iran will retaliate should its ships be searched over suspicions that the cargo may violate the new sanctions approved by the U.N. Security Council earlier this month.

The European Union and U.S. Congress followed with additional, new punishing measures of their own to discourage the Iranian government from continuing its uranium-enrichment program, which they fear could be used to produce a nuclear weapon.

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin criticized all measures that go beyond U.N. sanctions, “especially ones of an extra-territorial nature,” and said countries should “refrain” from imposing them.

Autoworkers claim Powerball jackpot

TOLEDO

A group of Michigan autoworkers has claimed one of two winning tickets in last week’s $96.9 million Powerball lottery.

The Ohio Lottery says most of the 14 winners work together in the paint shop at a Detroit Chrysler plant that makes the Dodge Viper.

The winners claimed their prize Tuesday in Toledo. The lone Ohio resident in the group bought the ticket at a carryout just outside Toledo.

All of the others are from the Detroit area.

The lottery says each of the 14 will get a lump-sum payment of $1.2 million.

The other winning ticket for the drawing was sold in Montana.

More Texas coast is put on notice

MIAMI

More of Texas’ coast is being advised to monitor Tropical Storm Alex.

On Monday afternoon, a tropical storm watch was issued for the Texas coast from Baffin Bay to Port O’Connor. A hurricane watch had been issued earlier in the day for the coasts of south Texas and northeastern Mexico.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami says Alex is expected to become a hurricane today. It’s center is on a track from Yucatan headed for the Texas-Mexico border and away from the oil-spill area off Louisiana.

A hurricane watch means that hurricane conditions are possible within 48 hours, and a tropical storm watch means tropical-storm conditions are possible in the same time frame.

Governors criticize border-security plan

PHOENIX

The Texas and Arizona governors criticized the Obama administration’s border-security plan Monday, saying not enough National Guard troops are being deployed to their states.

“What we heard wasn’t anything what we hoped to hear,” Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer told reporters after a 90-minue briefing by federal officials sent by President Barack Obama.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a Republican like Brewer, said the deployment to his state was “insufficient to meet the needs of securing the Texas-Mexico border.”

A White House statement said plans to deploy 1,200 additional National Guard soldiers along the U.S.-Mexico border would “complement the unprecedented resources and additional efforts already devoted by this administration to securing the Southwest border.”

Associated Press