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RUSSIA
U.S. Proposals Rebuffed
The Kremlin has rejected a second set of U.S. proposals offered to assuage Russian criticism of plans for an American missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, news agencies reported Wednesday.
In a major speech hours after Barack Obama won the U.S. presidential vote, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev pledged to base short-range missiles in the Baltic Sea region of Kaliningrad on the border with Poland if the United States moved forward with its plans.
The Bush administration later sent Moscow a new set of proposals, including suggestions about allowing Russian observers at the planned U.S. sites.
NORTH KOREA
Nuclear Sampling Rejected
North Korea indicated Wednesday it would not let international inspectors remove nuclear samples from a plant that makes arms-grade plutonium, a move that could hamper disarmament efforts.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Robert A. Wood said North Korea was obligated by "understandings" reached last month to allow such sampling.
North Korea agreed at the time to resume disabling its Soviet-era Yongbyon nuclear plant and to allow in inspectors to verify claims it made about its arms program after the United States removed it from a terrorism blacklist and rolled back some trade sanctions.
"The method of verification will be . . . confined to field visit[s]," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.
SYRIA
Israel Blamed for Uranium
Syria's foreign minister suggested Wednesday that Israeli bombs may be the source of uranium traces that diplomats at the U.N. nuclear agency said were found at a suspected nuclear site.
Walid al-Moualem said diplomatic leaks about the traces found at the site, which was targeted by Israeli warplanes in September 2007, were politically motivated.
