WORLD BRIEFS

IRAQ: Snag threatens Iran nuke talks

Talks between Iran and six world powers snagged Wednesday over dueling proposals concerning Tehran's nuclear program, a tug-of-war that pits international concerns about the Islamic Republic's potential to build atomic weapons against enforcing crippling sanctions on its people. The daylong back-and-forth in Baghdad focused largely on whether the current enrichment level of Iran's uranium production is a red line the United States and other powers will not permit for fear it could become warhead-grade material. The impasse threatened to dissolve the most hopeful chance of detente in nearly a decade, although both sides agreed to continue negotiations into Thursday.

BRITAIN: A chat on hacking with Piers Morgan

A television announcer said day that CNN talk show host Piers Morgan gave him a primer on phone hacking, a revelation that suggests he knew a fair amount about how the shady practice was carried out. BBC quiz show host and news presenter Jeremy Paxman told a media ethics inquiry that Morgan delivered his warning over lunch at the headquarters of the Daily Mirror, of which he was then editor, in 2002. Paxman said Morgan "turned to me and said, 'Have you got a mobile phone?' " "He asked if there was a security setting on the message bit of it. I didn't know what he was talking about. "He then explained the way to get access to people's messages was to go to the factory default setting and press either 0000 or 1234 and that if you didn't put on your own code, [in] his words, 'You're a fool.' " Paxman testified before the Leveson inquiry into unethical and illegal behavior at Rupert Murdoch's tabloid News of the World, of which Morgan was briefly editor before he went to the Mirror.

MALI: Beaten leader seeks help in France

Interim President Dioncounda Traore, 70, is heading to France for medical treatment for injuries in an attack by protesters. His adviser said Traore left Wednesday to get his heart tested. He has previously had a heart attack. Protesters demonstrating against an extension of Traore's mandate forced their way into his office on Monday and beat him until he lost consciousness.