Iranian official in Cuba blasts U.S.

The speaker of the Iranian parliament said Friday that U.S. opposition to his nation’s nuclear program is a direct challenge to Iran’s sovereignty.

Gholam-Ali Haddad Adel, who is leading an Iranian delegation to Cuba, reiterated Iran’s determination to proceed with atomic development despite fears in the United States and Europe that Tehran is secretly trying to build a nuclear bomb.

Haddad Adel said U.S. criticism of Iran’s nuclear program is only a “pretext to demonstrate its dislike against the Iranian revolution.”

Basra, Iraq

Two men feared kidnapped in Iraq

Two foreign workers may have been kidnapped in the southern city of Basra, Iraqi security forces said Friday.

Capt. Mushtaq Kadhim said the men dropped from sight after leaving Basra International Airport bound for the center of the city, and it was suspected that they had been kidnapped.

He described the men as “Yugoslav” and said they worked for a cleaning company at the airport in Basra.

Caracas, Venezuela

Chavez warns he can cut off oil

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez warned on Friday he could cut off oil exports to the United States if Washington goes “over the line” in what he has said are attempts to destabilize his left-leaning government.

Chavez made his threat a day after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that the Venezuelan government posed “one of the biggest problems” in the region and that its ties to Cuba were “particularly dangerous” to democracy in Latin America.

“I have already taken measures regarding this,” said Chavez. “I’m not going to say what because they think that I can’t take these measures because we would not have any place to send the oil.”