Los Angeles police on Saturday again questioned Michael Jackson’s doctor, while the family of the pop music icon ordered its own private autopsy two days after his death shocked fans around the world.Jackson’s father issued a statement urging fans not to despair because the singer “will continue to live on in each and every one of you.”
The family sought a second autopsy — the official one was conducted on Friday — amid reports about the 50-year-old singer’s reliance on prescription medications.
Jackson’s personal physician, Texas cardiologist Dr. Conrad Murray, who was with the singer when he collapsed at his rented mansion on Thursday, hired an attorney to accompany him to what was expected to be a lengthy meeting with the Los Angeles Police Department late on Saturday.
“Dr. Murray is considered to be a witness to the events surrounding Michael Jackson’s death and he is not a suspect,” Houston law firm Stradley, Chernoff & Alford said in a statement.
“Dr. Murray hired legal counsel to help guide him through the police investigation process. The law firm was hired to make sure the police investigation is conducted properly.”
An LAPD spokeswoman said she had no updates on the meeting, three hours after it was scheduled to begin.
According to media reports, Jackson was injected with the narcotic painkiller Demerol shortly before he went into cardiac arrest. Murray was desperately trying to revive Jackson when paramedics arrived, and he rode with the singer in an ambulance to the hospital where the pop star was pronounced dead.
The official autopsy, conducted on Friday, failed to determine what killed Jackson, pending toxicology tests that were expected to take up to six weeks. Such tests could reveal the presence of drugs in his system.
The celebrity website TMZ.com, which first broke the news of Jackson’s death, reported that the second autopsy took place at an undisclosed location in Los Angeles on Saturday afternoon, on the orders of the Jackson family.
‘DID HE INJECT HIM?’
The Rev. Jesse Jackson, who has been serving as a spokesman for the singer’s family, told ABC News the family also had questions for Murray. Jackson is not related to the singer’s family.
“When did the doctor come? What did he do? Did he inject him? If so, with what?” he said in an interview with ABC.
Michael Jackson’s father, Joseph, issued a statement through People magazine, calling his son’s death “one of the darkest moments of our lives.”
He added: “We miss Michael endlessly, our pain cannot be described in words. … But please do not despair, because Michael will continue to live on in each and every one of you.”
He reportedly sent moving vans to empty his son’s mansion in the upscale Holmby Hills neighborhood, concerned that items would be stolen. The singer’s younger sister, Janet, spent several hours at the estate, which city records show is worth $20 million and owned by a trust linked to apparel mogul Herbert Guez.
Jackson’s parents, siblings and three young children were in seclusion at the family compound in the Los Angeles suburb of Encino, as distraught fans from around the world gathered outside its brick walls.
Jackson’s body is being held at an undisclosed mortuary after the coroner returned it to the family on Friday evening. Funeral plans have not been announced.
“We need something where we can mourn and celebrate his life, say our goodbyes,” said Donna Green, a 44-year-old resident of Las Vegas who once ran a Jackson fan club.
Archive for June 28th, 2009
A collection of miracles has allowed the United States to reach the final of the Confederations Cup. Bob Bradley’s side will need one more to stand any chance of success in Sunday’s championship game against Brazil.
Just over a week ago, a dispirited and disjointed group was torn apart 3-0 by Brazil in group play. Against that same opponent, the Americans will try to complete one of the unlikeliest tournament turnarounds in recent soccer history.
Here we take a look at what the USA can do to slightly increase its chances in what appears to be an impossible task against one of the world’s greatest sides.
1. Don’t be afraid.
The level of fear the U.S. showed against the Brazilians last week was embarrassing and gave them the victory without even breaking sweat. A repeat of that miserable mentality will result in another thrashing.
2. Attack, attack, attack.
The instinctive reaction against a team with the awesome attacking capabilities of Brazil may be to put up the shutters and defend in numbers. However, a negative approach merely allows the South Americans’ fluid offensive machine to do whatever it likes.
3. No stupid mistakes.
No team in the world can punish an error quite like Brazil. The USA found that out last week when it took the Brazilians just 15 seconds to turn DaMarcus Beasley’s giveaway on the edge of the Brazil penalty area into a counterattack goal and 2-0 lead.
4. Be like Mike.
Michael Bradley’s red card in the final minutes was the only lowlight in the United States’ semifinal upset of Spain. Bradley will be missed in the center of midfield, with Benny Feilhaber likely to get the call to replace him. Feilhaber and Ricardo Clark will need to show the same kind of intensity that Bradley and Clark managed in the semis.
5. Believe in destiny.
So much has gone right for the Americans since these teams last met that surely they can’t help but feel this is their time. Belief can accomplish great things, but trying to beat Brazil is still an almighty task. Logic suggests the five-time world champion will surely be too strong.
Share your thoughts and comments below.
Who should the U.S. start in place of suspended midfielder Michael Bradley?
Freddy Adu
Benny Feilhaber
Sacha Kljestan
Jose Francisco Torres
Albanians were voting Sunday in parliamentary elections seen as a crucial test of democracy to prove the Balkan country is ready for EU membership.
Albania is under international pressure to make sure the vote is fair and free of the reports of fraud that have marred previous elections. The European Union and the United States have stressed Albania must do better this time.
Albania joined NATO on April 1 and wants to join the 27-nation EU.
“This is an important day for democracy. Please go and vote,” OSCE Ambassador Robert Bosch told Albanians at a news conference held together with U.S. Ambassador John L. Withers and Albanian President Bamir Topi.
Topi reminded Albanians that “the partners’ attention is on the correctness of these elections, which are decisive for Albania’s future.”
The U.S. ambassador also underlined the importance of a trouble-free vote. “The importance of these elections is that they be free, that they be fair, that they be transparent and that the will of the Albanian people, not the aspiration of the political parties, be fundamental,” Withers said.
About 500 international observers and about 3,000 local officials were monitoring the vote, in which some 3.1 million people are eligible to cast ballots. Some 5,500 police officers were deployed to ensure security.
The governing Democratic Party and the oppsoition Socialist Party were neck-and-neck in pre-election polls.
The two parties are offering similar platforms, pledging to fight poverty and take Albania closer to the EU. In total, some 4,300 candidates representing 34 political parties were vying for the 140 seats in Parliament.
Prime Minister Sali Berisha cast his ballot in downtown Tirana, telling reporters that “no Albanian will lose in this free and fair election in which Albanians” will prove they are ready to enter the EU.
Socialist leader and Tirana Mayor Eli Rama called on Albanians to vote “to change history.” Rama had campaigned on his his nine-year record in leading the capital, saying he fought corruption while improving salaries and creating jobs.
“All our international partners are watching our maturity and the will to become an integral part of the EU, in which holding free and fair elections is a precondition,” Rama said after casting his ballot in the capital.
“It’s important that people here are clear about wanting to be part of Europe,” construction engineer Fahri Meho, 47, said. “The voters are still far ahead of the politicians.”
Another voter chastised politicians for overusing the country’s aim of joining the EU.
“It’s not only about Europe. It’s about our traditions as well,” 24-year-old Solida Parruca said, adding that she hoped the new government looks after Albania’s needs before making pledges to foreign capitals and international organizations.
Three people have been killed in recent weeks in what local media said were politically motivated attacks, although that remains unclear.
A regional leader for the small Christian Democratic Party was driving when his car exploded earlier this month. One man was shot dead during an argument over a campaign poster, also in June. And an opposition lawmaker was gunned down in May.
Iranian authorities have barred journalists for international news organizations from reporting on the streets and ordered them to stay in their offices. This report is based on the accounts of witnesses reached in Iran and official statements carried on Iranian media.
___
Iranian authorities have detained several local employees of the British Embassy in Tehran, a move that Britain’s foreign secretary Sunday called “harassment and intimidation” and reflected a hardening of the regime’s stance toward the West.
Iranian media said eight local embassy staff were detained for an alleged role in postelection protests, but gave no further details. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said “about nine” employees were detained Saturday and that some had been released.
The detentions signaled a further toughening of Iran’s dealings with the West, which has become increasingly vocal in its condemnation of a crackdown on opposition supporters.
Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi has alleged massive fraud in the June 12 presidential election and says he is the rightful winner, not President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Iran has accused the West of stoking unrest, singling out Britain and the U.S. for alleged meddling. Last week, Iran expelled two British diplomats, and Britain responded in kind. Iran has also said it’s considering downgrading diplomatic ties with Britain.
On Sunday, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported that the embassy staffers were detained for what was described as a “significant role” in postelection unrest.
The British Foreign Office says the embassy has a staff of more than 100, including at least 70 locally hired Iranians. Last week, Britain sent home 12 dependents of embassy staff because the protests had disrupted their lives.
Miliband, who is on the Greek island of Corfu for a foreign ministers’ meeting, said Britain has lodged a protest with the Iranian authorities over the detentions. He described the step as “harassment and intimidation of a kind that is quite unacceptable.”
“The idea that the British Embassy is somehow behind the demonstrations and protests that have been taking place in Tehran. … is wholly without foundation,” he said. The foreign minister discussed the detentions with his EU colleagues, who said later they drafted an agreement that “reaffirms solidarity among member states” in backing Britain in the dispute.
In London, a Foreign Office spokeswoman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said any further harassment of British Embassy employees would be met with “a strong and united EU response.” She declined to comment on whether Britain was considering recalling its ambassador in protest or for consultations.
Iran’s government has tried to discredit opposition supporters by alleging they have been directed by the West.
On Friday, a senior Iranian cleric, Ahmed Khatami, lashed out at Britain in a nationally televised sermon. “In this unrest, Britons have behaved very mischievously and it is fair to add the slogan of ‘down with England’ to the slogan of ‘down with USA,’” he said.
Britain, a colonial power in the region with a long history in Iran, has been a prominent target. Britain and the U.S. were behind the 1953 coup that toppled Prime Minster Mohammad Mossadegh, who nationalized Iran’s oil industry. Britain had almost complete control over Iran’s oil industry for decades.
The British have also drawn fire because of the BBC’s prominent role as a trusted broadcaster in Farsi inside Iran.
This is a reversal from the way the state and publicly funded BBC was perceived in the run-up to the Iranian Islamic Revolution. At the time, the BBC was widely listened to because it extensively covered anti-Shah demonstrations and activities of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who was in exile in France.
Iran’s leaders have countered Western condemnation with increasingly angry rhetoric. The confrontation appears to be dashing hopes for a new dialogue, as initially envisioned by President Barack Obama when he took office.
Obama wants to engage Iranian leaders in talks over the country’s suspect nuclear program which the U.S. and other western countries worry is aimed at developing nuclear weapons. Iran defends its nuclear program as civilian in nature. On Sunday, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the 27-nation bloc would “like very much” to restart nuclear talks with Tehran despite the rising tensions.
Iran’s rulers have unleashed club-wielding militiamen to crush street protests and arrested hundreds of journalists, students and activists.
On Sunday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for national unity, appealing to both sides in the dispute, even though he has come down firmly on the side of Ahmadinejad.
“I admonish both sides not to stoke the emotions of the young or pit the people against each other,” he said in comments carried on state TV. “Our people are made of one fabric.”
Mousavi signaled he is not dropping his political challenge.
In a new statement, he insisted on a repeat of the election and rejected a partial recount being proposed by the government. However, Mousavi’s challenge seemed largely aimed at maintaining some role as an opposition figure.
The latest statement by Mousavi, who has been increasingly isolated, appeared Sunday on Ghalamnews, a Web site run by supporters. Mousavi-related Web sites have frequently been blocked by the government, and one was shut down by hackers last week.
Iran’s top electoral body, the 12-member Guardian Council, has proposed recounting 10 percent of the votes. On Friday, the council offered to bring in six more political figures to oversee a partial recount, presumably to give the effort greater legitimacy in the eyes of the challengers.
However, Mousavi reiterated his demand for nullification as “the most suitable solution to restore public confidence.” He called for independent arbiters to settle the dispute.
Another defeated candidate, Mahdi Karroubi, also expressed doubt that a fair review is possible.
“How is it possible to answer controversies through counting some ballots?” he wrote in a letter to the Guardian Council, published Sunday in his newspaper, Etemad-e-Melli.
A third candidate, Mohsen Rezaei, said he would only send a representative to the council, for observation of a re-count, if the other two candidates did the same.
Dayne Morris eats out less, cooks at home more. He hunts for online bargains and shops at discount stores.
So when will he start spending freely again? “When I get a promotion,” says Morris, 24, a business consultant in Washington, D.C., “and the economy turns around.”
What used to be an afterthought, from ordering wine with dinner to jetting off on a resort vacation, still feels like a splurge. No one knows when consumers will feel financially secure enough to return to old spending patterns. But those whose livelihoods depend on it — shop owners, restaurant managers, hotel staff — will be among the first to see the shift.
Diners will order big pancake breakfasts again. Business suits will sell briskly. So will name-brand luggage, gym memberships and pricey jeans. Spas will sell more facials and massages.
Taken together, these seemingly minor transactions will likely help lift the country out of its longest recession since World War II. Consumer spending makes up about 70 percent of economic activity. But May data, released Friday, shows that a boost in income from the government’s stimulus program was devoted more to saving than to spending. Americans may be spending a bit more than they did at the end of last year — but it’s still far less than needed for a vigorous economic recovery.
That’s hardly good news for small-business owners like Troy Little, who runs 27 convenience stores in Tucson, Ariz., and is waiting to see more impulse purchases at the register.
Tucson has been battered by the housing bust, which wiped out construction jobs with it.
“That lunch-bucket guy is my bread and butter,” says Little, president of family-owned Quik Mart Stores. “He’ll grab a doughnut in the morning, snacks for lunch and smokes at night. That guy is gone. In our marketplace, I think we have a long, rough road ahead of us.”
When more of his cost-conscious patrons splurge on the Lumberjack Slam — a feast of pancakes, ham, bacon, sausage, eggs and hash browns — Denny’s CEO Nelson Marchioli will smile more.
“When the economy gets better, people will start buying the Lumberjack breakfast again and more appetizer samplers,” Marchioli says.
Some merchants who cater to higher-end customers say they already see signs of improvement. Helen Kim, director of operations for the upscale National Jean Co., which runs 12 boutiques nationwide, is one of them.
“Some are splurging,” Kim says. They’ll buy the third pair of jeans in a different color. They’ll get the second outfit now.” The average price of jeans in the store: $170.
More typical of retailers, though, is Joe Kanawati, owner of The Men’s Shop in Arlington, Va., whose customers include government workers and business travelers and who laments sales are still “the worst I’ve seen in 42 years.”
“When they are back buying business suits and slacks that will be good,” Kanawati says.
Broader economic signs will help make the case, too. Paul Taylor, chief economist at the National Automobile Dealers Association, looks at sales of new cars and vans, SUVs and pickups. Those sales were running at an annualized rate of 9.9 million units through May. Taylor says sales need to rise to an annualized total of 10 million to 11 million units to signal that consumers are spending freely again.
The merchants on the front lines will see the smaller telltale signs. Zane Tankel, owner of more than 30 Applebee’s franchises in the New York area, says he’ll be looking for customers to order complete meals — appetizers, entrees and desserts — as well as drinks like iced tea or soda.
For now, he’s taking heart that the worst seems over. During what seemed the depth of the recession, Tankel says, “we saw people tended to scan the menu more for the less expensive item.”
Iced tea and soft drinks with meals “just disappeared,” he says. “Appetizers were nonexistent unless you got a group and they shared platters. Desserts disappeared.”
Now, at least, diners are “ordering more higher-end things like a steak as opposed to a burger and fries and just a salad. Those are early indications. Whether they stick or not, I’m not sure.”
Denny’s Marchioli says he’ll be looking for customers to buy traditional dinner items at dinner time, rather than the cheaper breakfast-style food that’s sold all day. He’ll also be watching for fewer people — especially older customers on fixed incomes — to split a single meal.
“That is up significantly,” Marchioli says. “It will go down when things get better.”
Todd Walter, chief executive officer of Red Door Spa Holdings, knows what to look for: Customers splurging again on facials and massages, rather than sticking with “maintenance” services such as hair cuts, color and waxing.
He’ll also be watching for first-time customers, of whom there’s been a “fairly significant falloff” during the recession.
“As we start to see those numbers — first-time foot traffic — come back, that will certainly be an indicator that the economy is recovering more broadly,” Walter said.
Another item on his watchlist: a rebound in sales at resort spas, which were hurt more than spas at other locations as people cut back on vacation travel.
Michael Movahedi, owner of Signature Leather and Travelware in Arlington, Va., says he wants to see people once again buying name-brand luggage.
“When the economy was good, people would buy to impress. They’d get a really fancy bag and toss the other one. It will be a good sign when people ask me, `Can I leave my old luggage here?’”
Randall Filer, economics professor at Hunter College, says he’ll be keeping an eye on summer airline travel and resort bookings.
“If bookings are up over last summer, that would definitely be a good sign,” he said.
Economists, meanwhile, are monitoring overall consumer spending, which rose at a 1.4 percent annual rate in the first three months of this year. That was a sharp reversal from the 4.3 percent annualized drop in the fourth quarter — which was the steepest in 28 years. Once quarterly spending starts logging at least 2.5 percent growth for three straight quarters, it would suggest consumers are truly back, analysts say.
Mack Payne hopes to be one of them. Until a few months ago, Payne, 35, of Washington, D.C., was “spending money like no tomorrow.”
But after being laid off from his job at a gym, Payne is on a tight budget. And that won’t change until he finds a new job, he says.
“My mother always said, `Save for a rainy day,’” he says. “The rainy day is here.”
General Motors Corp. has agreed to take on responsibility for future product liability claims, removing what could have been a sizable roadblock on the automaker’s path to a quick sale of its assets and emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy as a new company.
As part of its government-backed restructuring plan, GM wants to sell the bulk of its assets to a new company and leave behind unprofitable assets and other liabilities such as product-related lawsuits. A hearing on the proposed sale is scheduled for Tuesday.
But in a concession to consumer groups and state officials who had threatened to block the sale because of product liability concerns, the new company will now assume responsibility for future claims involving vehicles made by the old company, according to documents filed in federal bankruptcy court in New York on Friday.
Under the automaker’s previous plan, “New GM” would not have assumed any liability for future claims related to GM vehicles made before the sale and creation of the new company. That meant that consumers who wanted to file a lawsuit related to a defective GM vehicle would have had to seek compensation from “Old GM,” a collection of mostly unprofitable assets left over after the sale, where there likely would be nothing left to pay their claims.
But under the new plan, “New GM” will not assume liability for already pending claims against the automaker and those people will still be forced to seek compensation from “Old GM.”
“The fact that ‘New GM’ will protect consumers injured by defective ‘Old GM’ cars is a positive development for public safety,” The Ad Hoc Committee of Consumer Victims of Chrysler and GM said in a statement released Saturday.
But the group said more needs to be done, noting that GM’s concession doesn’t help people that have already been hurt by its vehicles. It also said consumers hurt by fellow automaker Chrysler LLC still have little recourse.
As part of its plan to sell most of itself to a group led by Italy’s Fiat Group SpA and emerge from Chapter 11, Auburn Hills, Mich.-based Chrysler also asked the judge overseeing its case for permission to leave behind its past and future product liability claims.
Consumer groups, as well as several individuals with pending claims against Chrysler, objected and some even took their arguments to the Supreme Court before the sale was ultimately approved and the automaker emerged from court oversight shortly thereafter.
GM, which filed for Chapter 11 on June 1, has said it wants to spend no more than 60 to 90 days under bankruptcy protection and that a key part of meeting that goal will be a quick sale of the company’s assets.
Under the deal brokered with President Barack Obama’s administration, the U.S. government will get a 60 percent ownership stake in the new GM. The Canadian government will get 12.5 percent, with the United Auto Workers union taking a 17.5 percent share and unsecured bondholders receiving 10 percent. Existing GM shareholders are expected to be wiped out.
But even with the resolution of the product liability issues, GM still faces numerous objections to the sale, including ones filed by a group of its unsecured bondholders, a handful of states and cities and individual retirees and shareholders.
Honduran soldiers detained leftist President Manuel Zelaya on Sunday in a constitutional crisis over his attempt to win re-election, government officials said.
Troops took Zelaya, an ally of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, from his residence to an unknown location, Eduardo Reina, the president’s private secretary, told Reuters.
He said shots were fired during the incident, but that could not be independently confirmed.
“We have received reports that he was taken to a military air base,” Rafael Alegria, a senior government official, told pro-Zelaya television station Channel 8.
The president fired the armed forces chief of staff last week for refusing to help him organize an unofficial referendum on Sunday on allowing presidents to serve more than a single four-year term.
The impoverished Central American country had been politically stable since the end of military rule in the early 1980s, but Zelaya’s push to change the constitution to allow him another term has split the country’s institutions.
The Supreme Court last week came out against Zelaya and ordered him to reinstate fired military chief General Romeo Vasquez — a move the president said amounted to a “coup” against him.
The pro-government TV channel on Sunday called on Zelaya supporters to gather in the capital to support the president, but then went off the air without explanation. Phone calls to the presidential palace went unanswered.
The global economic crisis has curbed growth in Honduras, which lives off coffee and textile exports and remittances from Honduran workers abroad. Recent opinion polls have shown that public support for Zelaya has fallen as low as 30 percent.
Honduras, home to 7 million people, is a major drug trafficking transit point.
Iranian authorities have barred journalists for international news organizations from reporting on the streets and ordered them to stay in their offices. This report is based on the accounts of witnesses reached in Iran and official statements carried on Iranian media.
___
Iranian authorities have detained several local employees of the British Embassy in Iran, a move that Britain’s foreign secretary Sunday called “harassment and intimidation” and reflected a hardening of the regime’s stance toward the West.
Iranian media said eight local embassy staff were detained for an alleged role in postelection protests, but gave no further details. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said “about nine” employees were detained Saturday and that some had been released.
The detentions signaled a further toughening of Iran’s dealings with the West, which has become increasingly vocal in its condemnation of a crackdown on opposition supporters.
Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi has alleged massive fraud in the June 12 presidential election and says he is the rightful winner, not President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Iran has accused the West of stoking unrest, singling out Britain and the U.S. for alleged meddling. Last week, Iran expelled two British diplomats, and Britain responded in kind. Iran has also said it’s considering downgrading diplomatic ties with Britain.
On Sunday, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported that the embassy staffers were detained for what was described as a “significant role” in postelection unrest.
The British Foreign Office says the Tehran embassy has a staff of more than 100, including at least 70 locally hired Iranians.
Miliband, who is on the Greek island of Corfu for a foreign ministers’ meeting, said Britain has lodged a protest with the Iranian authorities over the detentions. He described the step as “harassment and intimidation of a kind that is quite unacceptable.”
“The idea that the British Embassy is somehow behind the demonstrations and protests that have been taking place in Tehran. … is wholly without foundation,” he said. The foreign minister said it would be an important point of discussion with his EU colleagues.
In London, a Foreign Office spokeswoman, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said any further harassment of British Embassy employees would be met with “a strong and united EU response.”
Iran’s government has tried to discredit opposition supporters by alleging they have been directed by the West.
On Friday, a senior Iranian cleric, Ahmed Khatami, lashed out at Britain in a nationally televised sermon. “In this unrest, Britons have behaved very mischievously and it is fair to add the slogan of ‘down with England’ to the slogan of ‘down with USA,’” he said.
Britain, a colonial power in the region with a long history in Iran, has been a prominent target. Britain and the U.S. were behind the 1953 coup that toppled Prime Minster Mohammad Mossadegh, who nationalized Iran’s oil industry. Britain had almost complete control over Iran’s oil industry for decades.
The British have also drawn fire because of the BBC’s prominent role as a trusted broadcaster in Farsi inside Iran.
This is a reversal from the way the state and publicly funded BBC was perceived in the leadup to the Iranian Islamic Revolution. At the time, the BBC was widely listened to because it extensively covered anti-Shah demonstrations and activities of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who was in exile in France.
Iran’s leaders have countered Western condemnation with increasingly angry rhetoric. The confrontation appears to be dashing hopes for a new dialogue, as initially envisioned by President Barack Obama when he took office.
Obama wants to engage Iranian leaders in talks over the country’s suspect nuclear program which the U.S. and other western countries worry is aimed at developing nuclear weapons. Iran defends its nuclear program as civilian in nature. On Sunday, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the 27-nation bloc would “like very much” to restart nuclear talks with Tehran despite the rising tensions.
Iran’s rulers have unleashed club-wielding militiamen to crush street protests and arrested hundreds of journalists, students and activists.
On Sunday, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called for national unity, appealing to both sides in the dispute, even though he has come down firmly on the side of Ahmadinejad.
“I admonish both sides not to stoke the emotions of the young or pit the people against each other,” he said in comments carried on state TV. “Our people are made of one fabric.”
Mousavi signaled he is not dropping his political challenge.
In a new statement, he insisted on a repeat of the election and rejected a partial recount being proposed by the government. However, Mousavi’s challenge seemed largely aimed at maintaining some role as an opposition figure.
The latest statement by Mousavi, who has been increasingly isolated, appeared Sunday on Ghalamnews, a Web site run by supporters. Mousavi-related Web sites have frequently been blocked by the government, and one was shut down by hackers last week.
Iran’s top electoral body, the 12-member Guardian Council, has proposed recounting 10 percent of the votes. On Friday, the council offered to bring in six more political figures to oversee a partial recount, presumably to give the effort greater legitimacy in the eyes of the challengers.
However, Mousavi reiterated his demand for nullification as “the most suitable solution to restore public confidence.” He called for independent arbiters to settle the dispute.
Another defeated candidate, Mahdi Karroubi, also expressed doubt that a fair review is possible.
“How is it possible to answer controversies through counting some ballots?” he wrote in a letter to the Guardian Council, published Sunday in his newspaper, Etemad-e-Melli.
A third candidate, Mohsen Rezaei, said he would only send a representative to the council, for observation of a re-count, if the other two candidates did the same.
