World in brief: Rice: Talks must be ‘substantive’
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday that a planned Middle East peace conference must be “substantive” to succeed, but she left the region without giving any sign of progress in setting an agenda.
Rice met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem, ending a two-day trip to prepare for the U.S.-sponsored conference in November.
Rice said the Bush administration would work “very urgently” with both leaders to ensure that the gathering in Washington yields progress toward ending the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Rice said it was up to the two leaders and their negotiating teams to come up with a document that could serve as the basis for future peace talks.
“A successful meeting has to be one that is substantive and advances the cause of a Palestinian state,” Rice said after meeting with Abbas in Ramallah.
Abbas said he would meet with President Bush next week during the U.N. General Assembly session in New York.
Paris
France suggests sanctions on Iran
French President Nicolas Sarkozy accused Iran directly of seeking nuclear weapons Thursday and suggested tougher sanctions against the Mideast nation.
Sarkozy, who has toughened the French position on Iran since taking office in May, called the possibility of an Iranian bomb “unacceptable.”
Sarkozy was expected to discuss sanctions with other world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly next week.
If current sanctions are not sufficient, “I want stronger sanctions,” Sarkozy said in a televised interview. But he insisted that France does not want to see tensions lead to war.
The United States and other world powers suspect Tehran of seeking nuclear weapons, while Tehran insists it only wants nuclear technology to produce electricity. Two rounds of U.N. sanctions have failed to end the deadlock.
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Nonprofit buys prostitution sites
A nonprofit corporation has purchased a large number of the buildings where prostitutes pose in windows in Amsterdam’s Red Light district, the city said Thursday, in a deal that may lead to a third of the windows being shuttered.
The move is intended to break a logjam in an multi-year effort by the city to cut back on the windows, which it says are a magnet for crime and money laundering.
Mayor Job Cohen said the move was not intended to get rid of prostitution entirely, since it is part of the area’s history and a major tourist draw for the city.
“What we do want is to get rid of the underlying criminality,” Cohen told local television station AT5.
In Thursday’s deal, public housing corporation NV Stadsgoed purchased 18 buildings with 51 windows for $35 million.