World briefs: 2/9/12
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TEHRAN -- A former U.S. Marine sentenced to death in his native Iran for spying for the CIA could be saved if the Obama administration would consider a prisoner swap, his Iranian attorney said Wednesday.
Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, 28, who was sentenced to be hanged in January, could face execution immediately after an appeals court has reviewed his sentence. The court's decision was expected Jan. 25. The reason for the delay is unclear, lawyer Mohammad Hossein Aghassi said.
Mr. Aghassi stressed that it was essential for the Obama administration to do anything within its means to reach out to Iranian authorities -- including offering a possible prisoner exchange -- to save Mr. Hekmati.
Iran has repeatedly asked for the release of Shahrzad Mir Golikhani, an Iranian American sentenced for involvement in an attempt to export night-vision equipment to Iran and who is imprisoned in Florida. In total, Iran has a list of 11 prisoners in U.S. captivity it says are illegally detained.
TOKYO -- The United States and Japan on Wednesday tweaked a long-stalled military realignment plan, hoping to streamline the transfer of Marines from Okinawa to Guam by cutting the number of troops to be moved and sidestepping a separate controversy about the future location of the Okinawa base.
A joint statement about the agreement provided no specifics about the new deal, but Japanese media reported that the United States is likely to send roughly 4,700 troops -- not the original 8,000 -- to Guam, signaling a possible scaling back of a planned $23 billion military expansion on the tiny island. The remaining 3,300 troops will be spread across the Asia-Pacific, rotated through bases in Australia and the Philippines.
ATHENS -- Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos summoned the country's international lenders for further discussions after he failed to get full agreement from his coalition supporters on economic measures needed for a second aid package.
Antonis Samaras of the New Democracy party said talks on a new financing agreement for Greece stalled over a dispute on cutting pensions.
The Greek government, facing a 14.5 billion-euro ($19.2 billion) bond payment on March 20, is struggling to arrange financing to avert a collapse of the economy.
LONDON -- Rupert Murdoch's British newspaper subsidiary reached a new batch of settlements Wednesday in the hacking scandal that has convulsed parts of the British media, police and political establishment, according to lawyers.
In January, Mr. Murdoch's media empire agreed to pay substantial damages to several dozen high-profile victims of phone and email hacking.
On Wednesday, nine out of 10 remaining cases in a first wave of suits brought against News International were settled. The only outstanding case was one concerning singer Charlotte Church.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- YPF on Wednesday raised the estimate for potentially recoverable oil and gas in its part of Argentina's "Vaca Muerta" (Dead Cow) basin to the equivalent of nearly 23 billion barrels.
But it cautioned that exploiting the formation would need a huge expansion in Argentina's oil and gas industry, requiring thousands of wells.
-- Compiled from news services
First Published February 9, 2012 12:00 am
