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Gates says more sanctions on Iran likely

KIRKUK, Iraq, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- Iran likely will be slapped with tougher sanctions because it still is shielding its nuclear program from inspectors, U.S. Defense chief Robert Gates said.

Gates said Friday he thought "significant additional sanctions" would be imposed by the United States and its allies against Iran because the republic hasn't followed through on its pledge to open up its nuclear activities to international inspection, The New York Times reported.

Gates spoke about Iran during a question-and-answer session with U.S. troops in Kirkuk, Iraq. After his visit, Gates headed for Irbil, capital of Kurdistan, for discussions with the semi-autonomous region's president, Massoud Barzani.

Iran has until the end of this year to show it is moving toward working with the West to curb its nuclear ambition, under a deadline imposed by U.S. President Barack Obama. In October, U.S. officials expressed cautious optimism about progress with Iran when Iranian officials agreed in talks with the United States and other countries to open a recently revealed uranium enrichment plant to international inspectors. Iran also agreed to send most of its openly declared enriched uranium outside the country for further processing. Iran since then has added conditions to its tentative pact.

A Pentagon spokesman said Gates would urge Barzani to settle differences with the government in Baghdad on issues such as oil rights so a unified central government can be achieved.

"This is perhaps the most worrisome issue here in Iraq as far as we're concerned," Gates told the troops in Kirkuk. "I think there is no question that the Kurds see their future as part of a unified Iraq, and what's at issue is the terms at which that goes forward."

Diplomat: World watching Iran protests

TEHRAN, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- The United States will not turn its back on the protests in Iran and the government's efforts to quell them, a U.S. State Department official said.

John Limbert, one of the U.S. diplomats taken hostage by radical students 30 years ago in Tehran, told CNN, "We believe as we have always believed that the Iranian people deserve decent treatment from their government."

Limbert, now a deputy assistant secretary for Iran at the State Department, remarked on the resilience of the student protesters, CNN reported Thursday

"Iranians have been seeking a voice in their own affairs and decent treatment from their government now for well over 100 years," he said. "Most of that 100 years, I would add, has been a history of frustration and defeat."

His comments came the same day U.S. President Barack Obama, during a lecture in Oslo, Norway, said the world was witness to the human rights struggles in countries such as Iran. Obama was in Oslo to receive the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

Limbert did not say whether he thought more sanctions against Iran were required because of its recalcitrance over opening its nuclear program to international inspections.

"We are looking at all kinds of measures to change this relationship and to persuade those in Iran to enter a more constructive relationship," Limbert said.

N. Korea, U.S. reach 'understanding'

PYONGYANG, North Korea, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- North Korea said Friday it had reached understanding with the United States on resuming the six-nation talks on its denuclearization.

A North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman told the Korean Central News Agency his government has reached "a series of common understandings" during this week's visit by U.S. Special Representative Stephen Bosworth.

The spokesman said the two sides held lengthy talks on a wide range of issues, including a peace treaty, normalization of bilateral ties, economic and energy cooperation and denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. He told KCNA the talks helped the two sides "deepen mutual understanding" and find common ground and that they agreed to continue to cooperate to bridge differences.

Bosworth, who concluded his trip on Thursday, had gone to Pyongyang to persuade the Communist country to return to the six-party talks in the first such bilateral meeting between North Korea and the United States since President Barack Obama took office.

The talks among the United States, China, Russia, the two Koreans and Japan have stalled since Pyongyang pulled out following U.N. condemnation of the North's nuclear and missile tests earlier this year and the tightening of sanctions.

North Korea, which shut down its Yongbyon nuclear facilities in 2007, began reprocessing plutonium at the reactor there after quitting the talks.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said KCNA also quoted the North's spokesman as saying both sides agreed on the importance of implementing the 2005 joint statement calling for the North's nuclear disarmament in return for massive economic aid, normalization of ties with the United States and Japan, and a peace agreement replacing the armistice that ended the 1950-1953 Korean War.

Indiana man executed for 1994 killings

MICHIGAN CITY, Ind., Dec. 11 (UPI) -- An Indiana man convicted of killing his wife, her brother and the brother's wife almost 16 years ago died quietly by lethal injection early Friday.

Matthew Eric Wrinkles, 49, was pronounced dead at 12:39 a.m., the Evansville Courier & Press reported.

"Not at this time, let's get it done," Wrinkles said when asked if he had a last statement. "Let's lock and load. It's plagiarized, but what the hell."

Outside the state prison in Michigan City, demonstrators protested Indiana's first execution in two years.

On Thursday, Wrinkles spent time with relatives, including his son, Seth, and daughter, Lindsay. Doug Garrison, the Department of Correction chief spokesman, said the family had a "real connected time."

Wrinkles was found guilty of fatally shooting his estranged wife, Debra Jean Wrinkles, her brother, Mark Fulkerson, and Fulkerson's wife, Natalie Fulkerson.

Wrinkles' wife had moved in with her brother, and Wrinkles invaded the house in Evansville dressed in camouflage and shot his victims in front of his children. He had recently been released after three days in a mental health center, and police said he was on methamphetamine.

In the days before his execution, Wrinkles gave an interview to Oprah Winfrey and wrote the prosecutor in his case criticizing his handling of it. But he also ordered his lawyer not to seek clemency from the governor.

One snow storm gone, another moves in

SACRAMENTO, Dec. 11 (UPI) -- As one major storm cleared out of the United States and moved into Canada, another snow event was percolating over the Sierra Nevadas, forecasters said Friday.

The Sierra Nevada storm should last several days, eventually moving east across the nation, CNN meteorologist Chad Myers said. The Sierras got more than 3 feet of snow in the last few days.

Officials in several states reported deaths from the storm that created blizzard conditions over much of the nation's midsection earlier this week.

Utility crews in El Dorado County, Calif., near Lake Tahoe, have been working this week to restore power to residents who have been without since Sunday, KXTV, Sacramento, Calif., reported. The county received more than 30 inches of snow.

Most of the nation braced for another day of low temperatures Friday, the National Weather Service said.

"Almost the entire Lower 48 is below normal as far as temperatures. In some cases, 20, 30 degrees," CNN meteorologist Rob Marciano said.

Western Michigan and the state's Upper Peninsula were under lake-effect snow warnings and advisories, NWS said.

Wind gusts created near whiteout conditions, as well as tossed snow around, making clearing the white stuff difficult. Gusts reached 50 mph in Omaha, 58 mph in Fort Wayne, Ind; and 60 mph in Toledo, Ohio.

In northern Arizona, deep snow socked in dozens of elk hunters, officials said. The Coconino County Sheriff's Office said it helped or offered assistance to about 50 hunters Wednesday and Thursday.