Tehran denies worker espionage

IRAN

Tehran denies worker espionage

Iran acknowledged Saturday that some personnel at the country's nuclear facilities were lured by promises of money to pass secrets to the West but insisted that increased security and worker privileges have put a stop to the spying.

The admission by Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi provides the clearest government confirmation that Iran has been fighting espionage at its nuclear facilities.

In recent weeks, Iran has announced the arrest of several nuclear spies and battled a computer worm that it says is part of a covert Western plot to derail its nuclear program. And in July, a nuclear scientist who Iran says was kidnapped by U.S. agents returned home in mysterious circumstances, with the United States saying he was a willing defector who was offered $5 million by the CIA but then changed his mind.

The United States and its allies have vigorously sought to slow Iran's nuclear advances through U.N. and other sanctions out of suspicion that Tehran intends to use a civil program as cover for developing weapons. Iran denies any such aim and says it wants only to generate nuclear power.

Tehran said Saturday that it was ready to hold nuclear talks with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China - as well as Germany in late October or early November. Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the precise date was being discussed by the sides.

- Associated Press

IRAQ

Maliki urges unity government

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called on rivals to join him in a national unity government on Saturday but potential partners suggested such an alliance may be a long way off.

A March parliamentary election yielded no outright winner, leaving Iraq in limbo and raising fears that insurgents would exploit the vacuum to stir sectarian tensions.

Maliki, under U.S. pressure to form an all-inclusive government, has so far won clear support only from anti-U.S. Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. In televised remarks, he said it was time for all to show flexibility. "We must sit together and talk to each other until we reach common ground," he said. "In this spirit we call on parties to come to the negotiation table.''

His rivals - the Sunni-backed secular Iraqiya bloc and a Kurdish coalition representing the oil-rich, semiautonomous north - responded with little enthusiasm.

- Reuters

NORTH KOREA

Kim applauded by crowd at party event

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il brought dancers at the "Arirang" mass games to tears Saturday by making a rare appearance at the dance extravaganza, accompanied by son Kim Jong Un, on the second day of celebrations of the ruling Workers' Party's 65th anniversary.