World briefs 5/23/04

Gadhafi walks out of Arab summit in 'disgust'

TUNIS, Tunisia -- Arab leaders convened their annual summit Saturday to discuss condemning terrorism. But the opening session was overshadowed by the walkout of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, who threatened to pull his country out of the 22-member Arab League. Eight other Arab leaders, including Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, failed to show up. "What's the significance of this Arab gathering?" Gadhafi said before packing up and leaving Tunis. "How can this summit convene while there are two Arab presidents in jail? I am disgusted." Gadhafi was referring to Saddam Hussein and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who has been holed up in his West Bank headquarters for more than two years, besieged by Israeli forces.

Tehran gives U.N. nuclear watchdog first declaration

VIENNA, Austria -- Iran has delivered an initial report on its nuclear program to the U.N. atomic watchdog, a key step ahead of an agency meeting next month to assess suspicions that it is covertly trying to make weapons, the agency said Saturday. The Tehran regime handed over the dossier on Friday to the International Atomic Energy Agency, and the documents "should provide broader information about Iran's nuclear activities," IAEA spokesman Mark Gwozdecky said. The Vienna-based agency will work to assess the "correctness and completeness" of the declaration.

Pakistan army protests incursion by coalition

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan's army has lodged a strong protest with U.S.-led coalition forces based in neighboring Afghanistan over an incursion by U.S. troops into a Pakistani tribal region while chasing terror suspects, an army spokesman said Saturday. The incursion occurred Thursday at Lowara Mandi, a remote village in northwestern Pakistan, where American soldiers searched several homes for about three hours but returned to Afghanistan when officials rushed there and told them to leave.

-- From wire reports