Few options after nuke talks fail

Few options after nuke talks fail

ISTANBUL

The collapse of another attempt at international outreach to Iran on Saturday has left world powers with few options except to wait — and hope that the bite of sanctions will persuade Tehran to reconsider its refusal to stop activities that could be harnessed to make nuclear weapons. But their patience could be tested. While the U.S. and others say that Iran already is suffering from the wide range of financial and trade sanctions, travel bans and other penalties imposed by the U.N., the U.S., the EU and others, the Islamic Republic shows no sign of bending.

Electoral ruling in Iraq under fire

BAGHDAD

A ruling by the Iraqi supreme court calling for the country’s electoral commission to come under the supervision of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s Cabinet prompted rival parties Saturday to proclaim the move “a coup against democracy.”

The decision by the federal supreme court was posted Friday on its website.

The ruling called for the Independent High Electoral Commission and the country’s anti-corruption board to be supervised by the council of ministers headed by al-Maliki, who secured a second term two months ago amid accusations that he was becoming an authoritarian leader.

‘Band of Brothers’ member dies at 94

OMAHA, Neb.

A member of the “Band of Brothers” who fought in some of World War II’s fiercest European battles, Ed Mauser shunned the limelight and kept his service with the Army unit a secret, even from some of his family.

His role came to light only after his brother-in-law got him a copy of the HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers,” said Terry Zahn, who met Mauser during a 2009 Honor Flight trip to Washington, D.C., to see the World War II memorial. Mauser, who died Friday, told his family that some of the things in the miniseries, such as the locations of buildings, weren’t quite what he remembered from being there in person.

But before that, “he never talked about it for years and years and years,” said Zahn, president of the Midwest chapter of the 101st Airborne Division Association.

Mauser, 94, was the oldest living member of Easy Company, which often is better known now as the “Band of Brothers.”

Source: GM adding jobs at Mich. plant

DETROIT

General Motors Co. will add a shift and more than 650 jobs at its assembly plant in Flint where it makes the hot-selling GMC Sierra and Chevrolet Silverado pickup trucks, a person familiar with the plan said Saturday.

The person spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been publicly made.

An announcement is scheduled for Monday and comes as Chevy sales to small businesses have increased for three-straight months, which GM says is an indication that small businesses across the country are beginning to reinvest.

Pope: Marriage not an absolute right

VATICAN CITY

Pope Benedict XVI told priests Saturday to do a better job counseling would-be spouses to ensure their marriages last and said no one has an absolute right to a wedding. Benedict made the comments in his annual speech to the Roman Rota, the Vatican tribunal that decides marriage annulments. An annulment is the process by which the church effectively declares that a marriage never took place.

Combined dispatches