Iran

Foreign minister hospitalized

Iran's foreign minister and chief nuclear negotiator was hospitalized with pains he said were caused by a hard-line newspaper quoting him as saying Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's phone call with US President Barack Obama was a mistake. Mohammad Javad Zarif's brief hospital visit is a pointer to the strength and possible rancor of the debate within Iran over the speed and extent to which the country should attempt to patch up its many quarrels with the West, particularly the United States.

United States

Washington to cut aid to Egypt

US officials said on Wednesday that the Obama administration is poised to slash hundreds of millions of dollars in military and economic assistance to Egypt. The announcement is expected this week, once official notifications have been made to all interested parties. The US has been considering such a move since the Egyptian military ousted the country's first democratically elected leader in July. It would be a dramatic shift for the Obama administration, which has declined to label the ouster of then-president Mohammed Morsi a coup, and has argued that it is in US national security interests to keep aid flowing.

Egypt

Morsi's trial date set for Nov 4

Ousted Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi will go on trial on Nov 4 on charges of incitement to kill opponents while he was in office, an Egyptian court announced on Wednesday. Morsi was removed from office on July 3. He has been held incommunicado at an unknown location and not seen since, although he has spoken to his family twice and was visited by European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and an African Union delegation.

Reuters-AP

(China Daily 10/10/2013 page12)