Today Tuesday Wednesday
High: 60 High: 56 High: 58
Low: 45 Low: 44 Low. 42
Precip: 10% Precip: 30% Precip: 10%
IN BRIEF
Stable Iraq tops voter
priorities in new poll
WASHINGTON D.C. — As Presi
dent Bush mulls what to do after
winning re-election, voters say his
first priority should be resolving the
situation in Iraq, where the fighting
is growing more intense. They also
want Bush to cut the deficit, which
ballooned under his watch, rather
than pushing for more tax cuts, ac
cording to an Associated Press poll
taken right after the election. The
voters’ concerns stood in contrast to
the priorities Bush cited after he de
feated Democrat John Kerry. Bush
pledged to aggressively pursue ma
jor changes in Social Security, tax
laws and medical malpractice
awards. Terrorism was a chief con
cern both for Bush and many voters
in the poll.
Macedonians vote on
local Albanian autonomy
SKOPJE, Macedonia — Macedo
nia’s peace process was at a cross
roads Sunday as voters cast ballots in
a referendum on whether to grant lo
cal autonomy to the country’s ethnic
Albanians or risk undermining a
peace pact with the restive minority.
Voters were considering whether to
annul a law that redrew districts in the
Balkan republic and made the ethnic
Albanians a dominant force in 16 out
of 84 districts — effectively granting
them a large degree of self-rule.
Parliament approved the law in
August as part of a Western-bro
kered peace deal signed by the gov
ernment and Albanian rebels three
years ago. But the measure angered
Macedonian hard-liners, who forced
Sunday’s referendum in a bid to
block the reform.
The government, the United States
and European countries have called
for the defeat of the referendum, say
ing that revoking the law could desta
bilize the country and undermine
Macedonia’s chances of joining the
European Union and NATO.
Palestinians flying
to Arafat's side
JERUSALEM — With Yasser Arafat
fighting for his life in a French hospi
tal, his top lieutenants will fly to Paris
for consultations with his doctors, a
senior official said Sunday, as Palestin
ian leaders worked to set up contin
gency plans in the event of the 75-year
old leader’s death. Prime Minister
Ahmed Qureia or PLO deputy Mah
moud Abbas — or possibly both —
will go to France on Monday, said For
eign Minister Nabil Shaath, who was
also going on the trip.
The Associated Press
Iran, European agreement
to prevent nudear dispute
Preliminary bill banning Iran's production
of nuclear weapons may be finalized by Wednesday
BY ALIAKBAR DAREINI
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TEHRAN, Iran — Hoping to avoid
a U.N. showdown, Iran and the Eu
ropean Union’s three big powers
reached a preliminary agreement
over Tehran’s nuclear program,
Iran’s chief negotiator said Sunday.
Meanwhile, lawmakers in Iran’s
conservative-dominated parliament
pushed for a bill banning the produc
tion of nuclear weapons, a gesture to
build more international trust.
The preliminary agreement
worked out in Paris with Britain,
France and Germany could be final
ized in the next few days, chief Iran
ian negotiator Hossein Mousavian
told state-run Iranian television
from the French capital, where talks
wrapped up Saturday.
If approved, the deal would be a
major breakthrough after months of
threats and negotiations and could
spare Iran from being taken before
the U.N. Security Council, where
the United States has warned it
would seek to impose economic
sanctions unless Tehran gives up all
uranium enrichment activities, a
technology that can produce nuclear
fuel or atomic weapons.
Diplomats in Austria familiar
with the talks’ outcome declined to
discuss details. “One or two points
remain outstanding, and they hope
to resolve those outstanding points
by Wednesday,” one diplomat in
Austria said.
In proposals to Iran last month,
Britain, Germany and France offered
a trade deal and peaceful nuclear
technology, including a light-water
research reactor, if Iran pledged to
indefinitely suspend uranium en
richment and related activities such
as reprocessing uranium and build
ing centrifuges used to enrich it.
Europe and Washington fear Iran
is trying to build nuclear weapons,
but Tehran denies such claims, say
ing its atomic program has peaceful
aims, including energy production.
“We had 22 hours of negotiations
... They were very difficult and com
plicated negotiations but we
reached a preliminary agreement at
the expert level,” Mousavian said.
He said the four countries must now
ask their governments to approve
the accord.
The preliminary agreement ap
peared to mark a dramatic break
through, since Iranian officials
have resisted indefinite or long
term suspension of nuclear enrich
ment, a process that Iran is permit
ted to pursue under the Nuclear
Nonproliferation TYeaty, which
Tehran has signed.
While not being in breach of the
treaty, Iran is under heavy interna
tional pressure to drop such plans as
a good faith gesture.
“If this is approved by all four par
ties, we will witness an important
change in Iran’s relations with Eu
rope and much of the international
community in (the) not-too-distant
future,” Mousavian said without
elaborating on the agreement.
The Europeans had warned Iran
that they will back Washington’s
threat to refer the Islamic republic
to the U.N. Security Council for
possible sanctions unless it gives
up all uranium enrichment activi
ties before a Nov. 25 meeting of the
International Atomic Energy
Agency in Vienna.
Tehran suspended uranium en
richment last year but has refused to
stop other related activities, insisting
its program is intended purely for
the production of fuel for nuclear
power generation.
Russian protesters celebrate Bolshevik Revolution
Thousands celebrate communist history, support
authoritarian Belarus leader; several arrested
BY MARA D. BELLABY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
MOSCOW — Carrying the Soviet
hammer-and-sickle flag and singing
as they marched, Russians marked
the anniversary of the 1917 Bolshevik
Revolution on Sunday in both a cele
bration of Soviet times and a protest
against a parliamentary proposal to
scrap a once-revered Soviet holiday.
At least 8,000 Communist Party
backers and members of the ultra-na
tionalist National Bolshevik party
gathered at a square once named for
Vladimir Lenin and marched across
Moscow toward a statue of Karl
Marx. They bore a giant portrait of
Lenin and banners proclaiming
“U.S.S.R. — our Homeland.”
In Red Square, veterans wearing
World War II military coats marched
in formation, retracing the steps they
took in 1941 when Soviets defiantly
celebrated Revolution Day in spite of
the Nazi forces massed 33 miles out
side Moscow.
Some pro-Kremlin lawmakers have
proposed replacing the Nov. 7 holi
day with a new holiday on Nov. 4 to
be called National Unity Day. Rus
sia’s lower house of parliament, the
State Duma, is expected to consider
the measure Wednesday in the first of
three required votes.
“This day was and will be a land
mark event, and its celebration can
not be abolished,” Communist Party
leader Gennady Zyuganov said.
“People suffered for this holiday, and
no one has the right to trample on
our history.”
Some chanted, “America, hands off
Lukashenko!” a show of support for
the authoritarian leader of neighboring
Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, who
has resurrected Soviet-era symbols and
institutions and honored now-dis
graced Soviet-era officials. The United
States has accused Lukashenko of hu
man rights violations and threatened
Belarus with sanctions.
Young protesters, wearing masks,
stomped on the flag of the pro-Krem
lin United Russia party and tried to
burn it in Chelyabinsk, about 950
miles east of Moscow. Police arrested
several of the protesters.
In the Siberian city of Tomsk, Com
munist Party members carried
posters reading, “Hands off Nov. 7!”
the Interfax news agency reported.
A poll of 1,500 Russians found that
77 percent opposed scrapping the
Nov. 7 holiday. The poll had a margin
of error of 3 percent.
The holiday was also marked in
other former Soviet republics. Three
hundred elderly people rallied in
Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan,
the only country in former Soviet
Central Asia that has preserved both
the holiday and a statue of Lenin on
one of the capital’s main squares.
About 1,000 Ukrainians also
marked the Soviet holiday, but some
bystanders were cynical.
“Those who make revolutions don’t
like to work,” said Oksana Levina, a
businesswoman in Kiev. “The princi
ple of equality kills all initiative.”
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