WORLD BRIEFS

IRAN: U.S. freezes some Guard assets

The Obama administration slapped new sanctions Wednesday on several affiliates of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps amid stepped-up efforts to get UN penalties against Tehran because of its nuclear and missile programs. The Treasury Department said in Washington it was freezing the assets in U.S. jurisdictions of Revolutionary Guard Gen. Rostam Qasemi and four subsidiaries of a previously penalized construction firm that he runs over their alleged involvement in producing weapons of mass destruction. The sanctions expand existing U.S. unilateral penalties against elements of the Guard Corps. In Vienna, a document from the UN nuclear agency said Iran is using only a fraction of its capacities to enrich its uranium stockpile to higher levels. The document, shared with The Associated Press, suggests that only 164 enriching centrifuges are being used. Tehran, meanwhile, braced for street protests Thursday, the anniversary of the Islamic revolution.

AFGHANISTAN: NATO scouts defenses at Marjah

U.S. Marines fired smoke rounds Wednesday and armored vehicles maneuvered close to Taliban positions to test insurgent defenses ahead of an anticipated attack on Marjah, the biggest militant-controlled town in southern Afghanistan. A NATO spokesman in Brussels called on the militants to surrender. A Taliban spokesman boasted that they were prepared to "sacrifice their lives" to defend the town against the biggest NATO-Afghan offensive of the eight-year war.

BRITAIN: Court seeks interrogation report

Britain was forced by an appeals court Wednesday to reveal a long-secret description of how a former terrorism suspect was beaten, shackled and deprived of sleep during interrogations by U.S. agents. Ethiopia-born British resident Binyam Mohamed was arrested in Pakistan in 2002, and says he was tortured there and in Morocco before being flown to Guantánamo Bay and charged with plotting with al-Qaida to bomb American apartment buildings. The British government has repeatedly denied complicity in torture, and claimed that revealing the information would damage U.S.-British intelligence cooperation.