The world in brief

LITTLE ROCK — QUOTE OF THE DAY “There will be [a] physical response against

the threat imposed by the United States militarily.”

North Korean spokesman Ri Tong Il

Article, 8AIran leader: Russia joining in U.S. lies

TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused Russia’s president Friday of turning against Tehran and joining the U.S. in spreading lies about its nuclear program.

Ahmadinejad said Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev entered a “propaganda drama” directed by Washington by saying last week that Iran was getting closer to being able to develop nuclear weapons.

The Iranian president has had harsh words for Moscow since it became apparent that Russia would support last month’s new United Nations sanctions against Tehran for its refusal to stop parts of its nuclear program. In the past, Iran had depended on allies Russia and China, and their veto power at the Security Council, to block tough penalties.

“Russia is a great nation and we are interested in continuing friendship between the two nations but his [Medvedev’s] remarks are part of a propaganda drama that is to be carried out by the U.S. president against the Iranian nation,” Ahmadinejad said in a speech posted on his website Friday.

6 die in raid on al-Qaida in Mauritania

PARIS - The French military helped Mauritanian forces thwart an attack by suspected al-Qaida members in northwest Africa in an operation that left six extremists dead, officials said Friday.

Four others purportedly from al-Qaida’s North African offshoot escaped during the raid, including one who was wounded, according to Mauritanian’s interior minister, Mohamed Ould Boilil. The group had been planning to attack a Mauritanian military base next week, he said.

Questions swirled around the mysterious operation against al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, which is active in the Sahara Desert and the arid Sahel region. The French Defense Ministry would not say when or where the raid took place.

The Spanish newspaper El Pais and other media said the raid early Thursday was an attempt to free a 78-year-old French hostage. But El Pais said the troops did not find Michel Germaneau, an engineer who worked for Algeria’s oil industry who was abducted April 22.

U.S. pledged to global AIDS fight

VIENNA - President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton have pledged the support of the United States in the global fight against AIDS.

Speaking Friday via prerecorded video at the close of an international conference on the disease, the two said they were committed to building upon progress and taking the lead in ensuring a sustainable and effective response.

“Ending this pandemic won’t be easy, and it won’t happen overnight,” Obama told delegates gathered in the Austrian capital. “But thanks to you, we’ve come a long way - and the United States is committed to continuing that progress.”

Clinton said the United States believes access to HIV/ AIDS prevention, treatment and care should be a universal and shared responsibility, and that health was a human right.Missiles hit Pakistan hide-out, kill 16

ISLAMABAD - U.S. missiles hit a suspected militant hide-out and killed 16 insurgents in a troubled Pakistani tribal region along the Afghan border before dawn today, intelligence officials said.

Six missiles struck a compound in the Nazai Narai area of South Waziristan.

The hide-out was known to be frequented by foreign fighters, who were among the dead, two intelligence officials said.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to speak on the record, said agents were trying to get more details about the identities and nationalities of the dead.

Army spokesmen were not immediately available for comment.

Washington has relied heavily on its covert missile campaign to take out al-Qaida, Afghan Taliban and their local supporters in North and South Waziristan tribal regions, which are hiding places for insurgents.