Iranian negotiator heads home for talks
VIENNA – A senior U.S. official acknowledged Sunday that Iran nuclear talks will go past their June 30 target date, as Iran’s foreign minister prepared to head home for consultations before returning to push for a breakthrough.
Iranian media said Mohammed Javad Zarif’s trip was planned in advance.
Still, the fact that he was leaving the talks so close to what had been the Tuesday deadline reflected both that the talks had a ways to go and his need to get instructions on how to proceed on issues where the sides remain apart – among them how much access Tehran should give to United Nations’ experts monitoring his country’s compliance to any deal.
Police in Turkey force gay rally to move
ISTANBUL – Turkish police used water cannons and tear gas to clear a gay pride rally from Istanbul’s central square.
Between 100 and 200 marchers were chased away from Taksim Square on Sunday after a police vehicle fired several jets of water to disperse the crowd.
It wasn’t immediately clear why the police intervened to push the peaceful if noisy rally away from the area.
The crowd regrouped a few blocks down the street and continued to dance and chant slogans against homophobia without any further clashes.
Pakistani heat wave kills hundreds
ISLAMABAD –A devastating weeklong heat wave in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi killed 1,233 people, an official said.
Nazar Mohammad Bozdar, operations director at the Provincial Disaster Management Authority, said about 65,000 heatstroke patients were treated by doctors at all of Karachi’s hospitals since June 20 when the heat wave struck Sindh province, where Karachi is the provincial capital.
Associated Press
