World in brief

Obama: Iran may have right to nuclear energy

President Barack Obama reiterated that Iran may have some right to nuclear energy —- provided it takes steps to prove its aspirations are peaceful. In a BBC interview broadcast Tuesday, Obama also restated plans to pursue direct diplomacy with Tehran to encourage it to set aside any ambitions for nuclear weapons it might harbor. Separately, Obama met Tuesday with Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak at the White House just hours before leaving on a trip to Egypt and Saudi Arabia aimed at reaching out to the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims.

Clinton opposes move to readmit Cuba to OAS

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday firmly opposed allowing Cuba to rejoin the Organization of American States unless it adopts democratic reforms, an isolated U.S. stand that prompted Honduras President Manuel Zelaya, the host of the meeting, to label the U.S. embargo on Cuba a “day of infamy.” The United States is largely alone in the 34-nation OAS in demanding conditions. U.S. officials hope to stall a vote on reversing Cuba’s 1962 suspension from the OAS and support a Brazilian proposal to adopt a working group on the matter.

Scandal undermines British government

A scandal over lawmakers’ expenses threatened to overwhelm British Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s government on Tuesday, as his minister for security and police prepared to quit and the future of several other senior figures was in doubt. Brown is coping with a raft of resignations after embarrassing details of lawmakers’ expenses leaked out, and is expected to fire some senior ministers. Lawmakers from all parties have expensed items ranging from cookies and cushions to horse manure, swimming pool repairs and bogus home loan payments.

Swine flu closes in on being a pandemic

The World Health Organization in Geneva said Tuesday it is “getting closer” to declaring a global outbreak of the swine flu virus as the infection appears to be taking hold outside of North America. WHO flu chief Keiji Fukuda said the disease has reached 64 countries and infected 18,965 people, causing 117 deaths. WHO ranks swine flu as at Phase 5 in its geographic spread; Phase 6 signals a pandemic.

Suicide suspected in Gitmo detainee’s death

A Yemeni detainee at Guantanamo Bay has died of an apparent suicide, U.S. military officials announced Tuesday. Guards found Muhammad Ahmad Abdallah Salih unresponsive and not breathing in his cell Monday night. His is the fifth apparent suicide at the prison.

No tweets from China on eve of Tiananmen

Ahead of the 20th anniversary of the bloody crackdown on Tiananmen Square this week, authorities in China have rounded up dissidents and shipped them out of Beijing. Now, they’ve even shut down Twitter. The authorities are silencing social networking sites that might foster discussion of any commemoration of the events of June 3-4, 1989.

Court orders Mumbai terror suspect freed

A High Court in Lahore, Pakistan, ordered that Hafiz Mohammed Saeed, founder of the group India blames for last year’s Mumbai siege, freed from six-month house arrest. The High Court panel ruled that Saeed, a hardline Islamic cleric, could be held no longer because there was no evidence against him, his lawyer told reporters.