In brief: Nuclear negotiations with Iran resume

Geneva – International negotiations aimed at limiting Iran’s disputed nuclear program resumed Wednesday, with U.S. officials insisting they would take the time necessary to reach the best possible preliminary deal despite mounting pressure for a quick agreement.

A week and a half after the last round of talks in Geneva broke off without an agreement, a U.S. negotiating team joined those of five other world powers and Iran in negotiations that are scheduled to run at least through Friday.

Representatives of the U.S., Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia met among themselves and with the Iranians during the day.

The six nations negotiating with Iran are preparing a deal that offers Tehran limited relief from the Western sanctions crippling its economy in return for limits on its nuclear program.

The goal of a preliminary deal is to provide time for the two sides to negotiate a final, comprehensive deal without the risk of Iran secretly forging ahead with the nuclear program during talks.

Car bomb detonates, kills 11 soldiers in Sinai

Cairo – At least 11 Egyptian soldiers were killed and 37 wounded in the restive Sinai on Wednesday when an attacker detonated a car bomb as a bus filled with troops passed by.

It was the deadliest attack against security forces since August and a sign that efforts to contain al-Qaida-linked insurgents in the region have failed. Egypt’s strongman, Defense Minister Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, vowed to avenge the deaths as the caskets of the slain soldiers arrived at the Almaza military base in Cairo.

Police arrest suspect in violent crime spree

Paris – Paris police said late Wednesday that they have arrested a man who may be the lone gunman who terrorized the French capital earlier this week. The man was apprehended in an underground garage in the suburb of Bois-Colombes.

The suspect’s DNA will have to be tested against samples taken from the offices of a newspaper targeted in a shooting and from a car used in a subsequent hostage situation, French investigators said.

The gunman, believed to be between 35 and 45 years old, started his crime spree Monday at the left-wing daily newspaper Liberation, seriously injuring a young photographer. The identity and motives of the gunman remain unknown.

Hundreds of policemen have hunted the man, who also fired shots outside the headquarters of Societe Generale bank and held up a motorist before disappearing on the Champs-Elysees avenue.