U.S. welcomes EU sanctions against Iran
WASHINGTON, June 23 (UPI) -- The United States welcomes the European Union's imposition Monday of further sanctions against Iran, a State Department spokesman said.
The 27-member EU voted in Brussels to freeze all assets of Bank Melli, Iran's largest bank, and invoked travel restrictions on high-level experts connected to Iran's nuclear program, the BBC and other media reported. The action is meant to penalize Iran for refusing to give up its nuclear aspirations, which Tehran maintains are of a non-military nature.
"In terms of the sanctions that the EU has now imposed, certainly, we welcome them," Tom Casey, the State Department's deputy spokesman, said at a news briefing. "We think it's important that the international community continue to step up pressure on the Iranian regime, as long as it refuses to comply with Security Council resolutions and suspend its uranium enrichment."
Casey said the Bush administration wishes Iran would accept the incentive package being offered for the Middle East nation to forgo its uranium enrichment program.
"But unfortunately, given an absence of a positive response from the Iranians, they're going to find themselves under increased pressure and steps that will be taken include not only what we've done in the Security Council, but also measures taken by individual states or organizations like the EU," he said.
Right to counsel begins when charges read
WASHINGTON, June 23 (UPI) -- A defendant's right to counsel begins when he first hears the charges against him and is jailed, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday.
In a case from Texas, the court ruled 8-1 that a magistrate hearing, even without the prosecution present, marked the beginning of the "adversarial judicial proceedings that trigger attachment of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel."
Walter Rothgery was mistakenly arrested on a gun charge and wasn't provided counsel when he went before a magistrate, informally called an article 15.17 hearing, when the charge was read and bail was set. He made several oral and written requests for counsel "which went unheeded," the court opinion said.
"The issue is whether Texas's article 15.17 hearing marks that point, with the consequent state obligation to appoint counsel within a reasonable time once a request for assistance is made," Justice David Souter said in the majority opinion. "When the Court of Appeals said no, because no prosecutor was aware of (the hearing), the court effectively focused not on the start of adversarial judicial proceedings, but on the activities and knowledge of a particular state official ... . This was error."
Souter was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices John Paul Stevens, Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Samuel Alito. Roberts filed a concurring opinion in which Scalia joined. Alito filed a concurring opinion in which Roberts and Scalia joined. Justice Clarence Thomas filed a dissent.
McCain adviser apologizes for terror line
FRESNO, Calif., June 23 (UPI) -- A senior adviser to presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain apologized Monday for saying a terrorist attack would help his candidate get elected.
The adviser, Charlie Black, said in an interview with Fortune magazine that if there were a terror attack "it would be a big advantage to" McCain.
Appearing outside a McCain campaign event in Fresno, Calif., Black apologized.
"I deeply regret the comments -- they were inappropriate," Black said. "I recognize that John McCain had devoted his entire life to protecting his country and placing its security before every other consideration."
Obama spokesman Bill Burton criticized the remark.
"The fact that John McCain's top adviser says that a terrorist attack on American soil would be a 'big advantage' for their political campaign is a complete disgrace, and is exactly the kind of politics that needs to change," Burton said.
Ban urges Zimbabwe election postponement
UNITED NATIONS, June 23 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Monday said Zimbabwe's presidential runoff election "would lack all legitimacy" and urged authorities to postpone the vote.
Ban cited continuing violence in the African nation and the "understandable decision" by opposition candidate Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change to withdraw from the polls. Tsvangirai pulled out of the race against President Robert Mugabe and sought refuge in the Dutch embassy in Zimbabwe.
Mugabe was pushing ahead with the elections, however.
"Conditions do not exist for free and fair elections right now in Zimbabwe," Ban said in a statement. "There has been too much violence, too much intimidation. A vote held in these conditions would lack all legitimacy."
Ban said he has communicated with a number of African leaders and they all agreed the elections should be postponed.
"I would strongly discourage the authorities with going ahead with the runoff on Friday," he said. "It will only deepen divisions within the country and produce a result that cannot be credible."
