Morning Brief, Wednesday, April 4

LOUAI BESHARA/AFP Middle East Just as Iranian media seemed to be lining up behind Tehran’s position, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that 15 captured British sailors and marines would be released. Unconfirmed reports say that a representative of Iran is getting access to five Iranian detainees in U.S. custody, but the U.S. military says Iran ...

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602839_070404_assad_05.jpg

LOUAI BESHARA/AFP

LOUAI BESHARA/AFP

Middle East

Just as Iranian media seemed to be lining up behind Tehran’s position, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that 15 captured British sailors and marines would be released. Unconfirmed reports say that a representative of Iran is getting access to five Iranian detainees in U.S. custody, but the U.S. military says Iran has merely made the request.

President Bush slammed House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s meeting with Bashar al-Assad, which took place today

Europe

Presidential candidate Ségolène Royal attacked French banks, accusing them of ripping off consumers.

U.S. officials plan to question Total’s CEO on accusations that he bribed Iranian officials.

Breaking: Ukraine’s prime minister has agreed to run in elections in May. 

Asia

A joint North-South Korean economic zone is a point of contention in the U.S.-Korea free trade agreement. Japan wants its own free trade deal with the United States. 

India and Pakistan’s prime ministers met to discuss Kashmir

Breaking: Dozens of casualties in fighting between tribal militias and foreign militants in Pakistan. 

The world’s most eco-friendly computer manufacturer is … Chinese

Elsewhere

A German research firm predicts that revenues of solar manufacturers will quadruple by 2010.

Hybrids sales are powering Toyota to record numbers in the United States, while Detroit’s Big Three automakers have stumbled.

Is Ethiopia hosting secret prisons for the United States?

Aid from OECD countries to Africa fell in real terms in 2006 despite the efforts of British PM Tony Blair.  

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