The world in brief

QUOTE OF THE DAY “The terrorists want to grab headlines as we approach election day.” Iraqi Army Maj. Gen. Hassan al-Baydhani, discussing a string of bombings in his country Monday that killed at least 55 people ahead of provincial elections set for Saturday.

Article, this page U.N. team surveys Japan’s nuke cleanup

TOKYO - The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency Monday began reviewing the decommissioning process at Japan’s crippled nuclear plant, where new problems are triggering growing safety concerns about a cleanup expected to take decades.

The experts will assess and analyze melted reactors, radiation levels and waste management at the Fukushima Daiichi plant to make its decommissioning process safer and more stable, team leader Juan Carlos Lentijo told reporters.

The cleanup is “a very difficult challenge,” he said, and “it is very important to conduct the decommissioning process in a very safe way.”

The mission by the 12-member team is the International Atomic Energy Agency’s first review of the plant’s decommissioning process.

Japan’s nuclear watchdog said there have been at least eight accidents or problems at the plant since mid-March, ranging from extensive power failures and leaks of contaminated water.

Mexico seeks to alter drug-war lexicon

MEXICO CITY - The Mexican government is trying to put a new linguistic spin on the country’s drug war, in part by discouraging the use of terms such as “drug war.”

Government spokesmen have been told they should now avoid using terms used by criminals to describe kidnappings and killings.

They have also been told to change the way criminal suspects are presented to the media.

The move drew mixed reactions Monday, a day after top Interior Department officials announced the changes at a conference of state and federal security public relations specialists.

The administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto has pledged to reduce violence in Mexico, but critics say so far that has implied simply talking about it less.

Putin aide says U.S. Congress ‘hostile’

MOSCOW - The Obama administration should put pressure on Congress to tame its hostile attitude toward Russia, President Vladimir Putin’s foreign-policy aide said after a message delivered by the U.S. leader’s envoy Monday.

National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon took a message from Obama to his Russian counterpart that included an offer to deepen economic cooperation, Putin’s aide, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters in Moscow. The proposal encompasses issues of missile defense and nuclear arsenals, Interfax said.

“From one side we have a positive letter that has several interesting proposals, from the other - an administration that’s taking no action regarding several figures that make our relations worse,” Ushakov said. “They are not willing to work with Russophobic Congress to align it with an atmosphere of cooperation with Russia.”

The former Cold War foes are trying to mend relations that have worsened since Putin returned to the presidency last year, with disputes ranging from democratic rights and missile defense to the conflict in Syria.

Cruise ship owner wants victim status

GROSSETO, Italy - The owner of the shipwrecked Costa Concordia asked a court on Monday to consider it a victim of the disaster, saying it too wants to seek damages for the 2012 grounding off Tuscany that killed 32 people.

Costa Crociere SpA, a unit of Miami-based Carnival Corp., made the request as the court in Grosseto, Italy, opened a preliminary, closed hearing into the grounding and whether to issue indictments against the captain and crew.

In Italy, civil cases are heard alongside criminal ones.

In the criminal part of the case, prosecutors want Capt.

Francesco Schettino to stand trial for alleged manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship before all the 4,200 passengers and crew had been evacuated. They want four other crew members and a Costa manager on land to face charges of having botched the emergency.

Schettino ordered the ship taken off course Jan. 13, 2012, to bring it closer to the island of Giglio as a favor to friends. But the ship rammed into a reef off the island, leaving a 230-foot gash in the hull and causing the liner to take on water and capsize. Passengers recounted that by the time Schettino ordered passengers to evacuate, the ship was listing so far to one side that many lifeboats couldn’t be lowered.

Front Section, Pages 9 on 04/16/2013

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