World Briefing

U.S. Embassy inaugurated in Berlin

Former President Bush inaugurated the new U.S. Embassy at its pre-World War II site, a return that he said symbolized the fulfillment of “a great and noble dream” of European freedom and unity.

Bush, who was president when the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and supported German reunification less than a year later, spoke alongside Chancellor Angela Merkel at the site in front of the Brandenburg Gate – the symbol of Germany’s postwar division and then of its unification.

The embassy completes the post-reunification rebuilding of the Pariser Platz, in front of the gate, which once stood in the fortified no man’s land behind the Berlin Wall.

President escapes injury in bombing

A homemade bomb exploded amid a crowd that included Belarus’ authoritarian president, wounding more than 50 people at an all-night holiday concert, officials said.

The blast was unusual in the tightly controlled former Soviet republic, where President Alexander Lukashenko suppresses dissent and public violence is rare. Officials blamed unspecified “hooligans” for the bombing.

The president was not wounded, and it was unclear whether he was the target of the attack. There were no reported claims of responsibility.

Ex-nuclear chief alleges army role

The army under President Pervez Musharraf supervised a shipment of uranium centrifuges to North Korea in 2000, the disgraced architect of Pakistan’s atomic weapons program said.

The claim is the most controversial leveled by Abdul Qadeer Khan, who has been agitating for an end to house arrest and backing off his 2004 confession that he was solely responsible for spreading nuclear arms technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya.

The retired scientist’s comments could prove embarrassing for Pakistan, which has repeatedly denied that the army or government knew about Khan’s activities before 2003.

From Times Wire Reports