World Scene

IRAN

Agent acquitted in Canadian’s killing

TEHRAN — An Iranian court has acquitted an intelligence agent charged with killing Canadian-Iranian journalist Zahra Kazemi in custody last year.

The court’s decision was likely to be welcomed by Mrs. Kazemi’s family, the Iranian government and human rights groups, all of whom expressed concern that the Intelligence Ministry agent, Mohammad Reza Aqdam, was a scapegoat and that evidence pointing to other suspects was ignored.

Mrs. Kazemi, 56, was arrested last June for taking photographs of Tehran’s Evin prison. Attorneys for her family — including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi — said they wanted the case reopened.

The case has soured Iran’s ties with Canada, which last week recalled its ambassador from Tehran.

PAKISTAN

3 officials freed in proliferation case

ISLAMABAD — Pakistani authorities have released three aides to disgraced nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan after holding them for months in a probe relating to a huge proliferation scandal, officials said yesterday.

A military spokesman said out of about a dozen people detained late last year for questioning, the government was now holding only one, but he added the investigation was not over.

He said Mohammad Farooq, a key associate of Mr. Khan, was still being questioned. The three men released Friday were Nazeer Ahmed, a former nuclear scientist, and two retired military officers, Sajawal Khan and Ehsan ul-Haq, who were connected to the country’s top uranium-enrichment facility until Mr. Khan headed it in 2001.

TAIWAN

Aborigines demand apology by official

TAIPEI — About 2,000 Taiwanese aborigines in traditional dress protested in Taipei yesterday, demanding the vice president apologize for saying they were not descendants of the island’s first settlers.

The aborigines bristle at any suggestion that they are not Taiwan’s first people, fearing the government could take away special rights granted to them, including hunting privileges in ancestral lands and parliamentary seats reserved for them.

Vice President Annette Lu said Friday that a vanished race of “black pygmies” was the first to live here 10,000 to 20,000 years ago. She also angered aborigines when she suggested that their farming practices might have contributed to flooding and landslides and suggested that the aborigines should leave Taiwan and search for new land in Latin America.

JAPAN

Jenkins’ kin sayofficials bar visit

TOKYO — American family members of accused U.S. Army deserter Charles Jenkins said yesterday they were blocked from seeing their long-lost relative at a Tokyo hospital because U.S. and Japanese officials want to quickly settle the matter of the former sergeant, possibly through a plea bargain.

Mr. Jenkins’ nephew, James Hyman, and his wife, Shirlee, made the claims as news organizations reported that the Japanese government was urging Mr. Jenkins toward a plea bargain. U.S. officials have been talking about taking him into custody after doctors cleared him of serious medical problems.

The Hymans said they were blocked from seeing Mr. Jenkins to prevent them from showing him a letter from the U.S. Army indicating that evidence used to back his desertion case did not exist.