IRAN

China urges cooperation with IAEA

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao urged Iran to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency and show flexibility over its nuclear program during a meeting with Iranian First Vice President Parviz Davoudi in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, New China News Agency said.

"Wen said peaceful negotiation would be the best way to resolve the nuclear issue and he hoped that Iran could further demonstrate its flexibility," the official agency quoted a Foreign Ministry statement as saying.

Six world powers, including China, agreed Friday to push ahead with a third round of sanctions against Iran unless reports this month indicate Tehran has tried to address their concerns about its nuclear program.

Rabin honored at memorial rally

More than 100,000 Israelis gathered in the Tel Aviv square where Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated 12 years ago to pay tribute to him.

They also protested a court ruling that would allow Yigal Amir, the Orthodox Jewish assassin serving life in prison, to attend his son's circumcision, scheduled for today, the anniversary of Rabin's slaying.

Amir has been permitted conjugal visits over the last year with his wife, whom he married by proxy while in prison. A son was born a week ago.

An Israeli court rejected his request to leave jail for the ceremony but said it could take place within the prison walls.

"This is a memorial rally that is also a protest rally," Rabin's daughter, Dalia Rabin-Pelossof, said before the gathering.

Dozens of fleeing Somalis drown

About 40 people, mostly Somalis, drowned while crossing the Gulf of Aden as they fled to Yemen to escape battles at home, security officials and witnesses said.

About 90 others survived and managed to reach the southern Yemeni shores of Shokara after their rickety vessels capsized, a security official said.

A fisherman said he saw "mutilated bodies scattered along the shores." It was not immediately clear how many boats were in the gulf, how they capsized or whether people were missing.

Villagers warned to flee volcano

More than 25,000 villagers were today refusing to leave their homes on the slopes of Mt. Kelud, in the heart of the country's densely populated Java island, despite warnings by scientists that it was on the brink of a powerful eruption, officials said.

The volcano has been on the highest alert level for two weeks.

From Times Wire Reports