Iran has secret site for nukes, exile says

Iran has built a secret underground facility inside a tightly guarded military complex to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons, a Iranian exile charged yesterday.

Alireza Jafarzadeh, who helped reveal that Iran had been conducting clandestine nuclear activities, said the secret facility is located at the Parchin military complex, 20 miles southeast of Tehran. Iran has repeatedly denied Bush administration allegations that it is secretly developing nuclear weapons.

U.S. intelligence officials, burned by bogus intelligence from Iraqi exiles trying to oust Saddam Hussein, have been more skeptical about information from Jafarzadeh and other exiles linked to the Iranian dissident group Mujahedeen Khalq.

The group, based in Iraq, was armed by Saddam and wants to overthrow Iran's Islamic regime. Some of what they've provided, especially about Iran's nuclear programs, has proved valuable, but other allegations remain unconfirmed or have proved false, said one official.

Guatemala City

U.S. ends arms freeze with aid to military

The United States released $3.2 million in aid to Guatemala's military yesterday, ending a 15-year freeze on the assistance in a largely symbolic recognition that the Central American nation has made progress reforming an army tainted by past human rights abuses.

The money was freed up after this nation of 14 million agreed to make its military subject to civilian courts, establish an office of the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights and remove legal impediments in Guatemala to U.N. investigations of human rights abuses.

The military aid had been frozen since 1990, six years before Guatemala ended a bloody 36-year civil war in which some human rights groups estimate as many as 200,000 people were killed, mostly by the army.

San Salvador, El Salvador

Activists hold vigil for assassinated bishop

Activists from around the world gathered in this Central American country yesterday to remember Bishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, a human rights proponent who was gunned down 25 years ago.

The bishop had spoken out against alleged repression by the Salvadoran army at the beginning of the country's 12-year civil war between a right-wing government and leftist rebels.

Romero was slain on March 24, 1980, while celebrating a Mass at a Catholic hospital where he lived. Romero's assassin was never brought to trial.

Port-Au-Prince, Haiti

Police open fire during protest march

Police opened fire yesterday during a street march in Haiti's capital to demand the return of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Witnesses said at least one person was killed.

The shooting follows a week of violence that saw two U.N. peacekeepers and two ex-soldiers killed in clashes. The violence has also heightened tensions ahead of fall elections and underscores the shaky security climate in Haiti more than a year after Aristide's ouster in an armed uprising.

Jakarta, Indonesia

U.N. refugee agency halts Aceh operations

The United Nations refugee agency has ceased operations in Aceh province after the Indonesian government failed to respond to its proposals for rebuilding the tsunami-hit region, a spokesman said yesterday.

The last of the organization's 100 or so personnel in the province will fly out today, said Robert Ashe, regional representative for the U.N. High Commission for Refugees in Jakarta, where the agency has had a history of strained relations with the government.

Since the Dec. 26 disaster that killed more than 127,000 people in the region, the agency has distributed tents, plastic sheets and blankets to nearly 100,000 survivors, he said.

UNHCR also had drawn up ambitious plans for reconstructing Aceh province, including building 1,000 homes, but the Indonesian government did not respond to the proposal.