SEOUL: North Korea has test-fired several short-range missiles off its western coast, a news report said Friday.
Local news agency reported that the launches happened at around10:30 a.m. (0130 GMT), citing an unidentified government official.
South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Defense Ministry said they were checking on the report.
BASRA ( 2008-03-25 20:56:39 ) :
The death toll from fierce fighting on Tuesday between Iraq's security forces and the Mahdi Army militia in the southern city of Basra has risen to seven, police and health officials said.
Police Major Abbas Youssef said the bodies of four people were brought to Al-Mawani hospital in the city centre while 18 wounded people were treated at the facility.
At the Al-Fayha military hospital, officials said the bodies of two Iraqi soldiers and a child had been received while 30 people were admitted -- 24 members of the Iraqi security forces and six civilians.
NOVO-OGARYOVO ( 2008-03-25 18:02:34 ) :
Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak met Tuesday with Russian leaders to close a deal allowing Moscow to join a tender for Egypt's first civilian nuclear power station.
The agreement, which has taken years to draw up, opens the way for Russia to bid for a 1.5-1.8 billion dollars (970 - 1.16 billion euros) reactor project on Egypt's Mediterranean coast.
The nuclear cooperation accord was to be signed by Russia's Rosatom nuclear energy agency chief, Sergei Kiriyenko, and Egypt's energy minister, Hassan Younis.
Mubarak said that after "difficult" negotiations the deal was ready, Interfax news agency reported.
Meeting with Mubarak at Novo-Ogaryovo outside Moscow, President Vladimir Putin praised Egypt as "one of the leaders of the Islamic and the Arab world" and said Russian-Egyptian relations were of "strategic importance."
Putin's incoming successor Dmitry Medvedev, who takes over the Kremlin in May, told Mubarak that he expected a "productive partnership" in the nuclear sphere, ITAR-TASS news agency reported.
Russia -- which is close to completing Iran's controversial first nuclear facility in Bushehr, and also recently signed a contract for a reactor in Bulgaria -- is keen to reestablish a commercial and diplomatic presence in the Middle East.
The region was a stronghold of Soviet influence before the end of the Cold War and subsequent surge of US dominance.
Today, nuclear technology and conventional weapons sales are again giving Moscow a foot in the door, and Mubarak was expected also to discuss possible arms deals on Tuesday.
Even if ties are a long way from the days when Middle Eastern elites routinely studied and trained in the Soviet Union, throngs of sun-seeking Russians are making their own mark by flooding to Egypt's coastal resorts in growing numbers.
In an interview with state-owned Rossiiskaya Gazeta daily, Mubarak voiced "full satisfaction with the level of international political consultations between Cairo and Moscow."
"However, since friends must always be open with each other, I must say that I am not as happy with the volume of Russian investment into Egypt's economy," Mubarak added.
"The chief issue on the agenda is the signing of an accord on Russian-Egyptian cooperation in the peaceful uses of nuclear energy," the
Kommersant daily wrote. The paper added that its sources hinted that "Moscow gave some ground to Cairo and now expects an answer."
The daily added: "Moscow particularly hopes that Cairo will return to buying Russian arms."
The Nezavisimaya daily echoed that theme in its headline: "Cairo is interested in Russian nuclear technologies and (conventional) weapons."
VIENNA: Russia and China on Tuesday scuttled a Western attempt to introduce a resolution on Iran's nuclear defiance at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, diplomats said.
The decision appeared to be the result of lingering unhappiness by the two world powers about not being informed earlier of plans for such a resolution.
It came a day after the U.N. Security Council imposed another round of sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment. Iran defiantly vowed to continue its nuclear program, which it insists is aimed only at generating power.
Moscow on Monday had threatened not to back the new U.N. sanctions against Iran unless the West gave up its IAEA resolution plans.
Then on Tuesday it signaled that it was ready to back such a document if it was given substantial input in drafting it before deciding later in the day that it was against it after all, said the diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was confidential.
Asked why Russia and China were opposed, one of diplomats said Moscow decided to withdraw its support "on principle" and Beijing, which often takes a cue from Russia on the Iran nuclear dispute, followed suit.
A senior Western diplomat said the decision to scrap plans for a resolution was jointly taken by the six powers taking the lead on engaging Iran on its nuclear program — the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.
He said the six felt that new U.N. Security Council sanctions passed Monday to punish Iran had sent enough of a message.
