Geneva

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One day ahead of talks in Geneva between Iran and six major powers - the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany - on Tehran's contr...

CONAKRY, Guinea — Guinea's military leader banned all gatherings and demonstrations Wednesday, as the United Nations pressed for an independent investigation into why troops opened fire on 50,000 pro-democracy protesters.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay condemned the soldiers' use of live ammunition against the unarmed people who gathered Monday in a stadium in Conakry, the capital, to protest against Capt. Moussa "Dadis" Camara, the country's military leader.

A human rights group said 157 people were killed and more than 1,200 were wounded. The government maintains that 57 people died and said most of them were trampled.

The U.N. Security Council also condemned the shootings Wednesday and joined the call for an independent investigation.

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice, the current council president, called on the government to free all opposition leaders and political prisoners "without delay."

WASHINGTON — Iran's foreign minister is making a rare appearance in Washington after being granted a visa by the State Department to visit the Pakistani embassy, which represents Iranian interests with the U.S. government.

Iran and the U.S. have not had formal diplomatic relations since 1980. No senior Iranian official has visited the U.S. capital in years.

State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Wednesday the decision to allow the rare visit was made in the last 24 hours, just a day in advance of an important meeting in Geneva between Iran and six world powers seeking to restrict Iran's nuclear program.

Crowley described the Iranian government's request for the visa as a straightforward matter. He said the Iranian minister is not meeting with any U.S. officials during his visit.

WASHINGTON — Ever since President Ronald Reagan proposed building a ballistic missile shield in 1983 to prevent a doomsday scenario, the idea has been dogged by an unanswered question: Will it work?

The prime target during the Reagan era was Russian missiles. A scaled-down defensive system recently proposed by the Obama administration would aim to shoot down warheads from Iran, which has heightened concerns by building a clandestine uranium enrichment plant and test firing missiles this week with a range of up to 1,200 miles.

But even as the U.S. prepares to meet on Thursday with Iranian officials in Geneva over the regime's nuclear ambitions, the administration's reliance on missile defense to guard against the unthinkable still amounts to a gamble.

Components of the latest system have shone in controlled test environments, but the new plan relies heavily on radars and ship-based interceptors that haven't endured real battle conditions.

"We're not building all these missile defense systems because we're worried about Iran firing a rocket with TNT on it," said Philip Coyle, the Pentagon's chief of weapons testing from 1994 to 2001. "We're worried about nuclear weapons, and nobody knows whether missile defenses can work with nuclear weapons going off."

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Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says sanctions are rarely productive but opened the door to tougher ones to halt Iran's suspected nuclear weapons program.

After meeting with President Barack Obama in New York, the Russian leader told reporters "in some cases sanctions are inevitable."

Obama's top priority in his sit-down with Medvedev was Iran's nuclear ambitions. Talks are scheduled for next month between a group of nations and Iran, and Obama wants to pursue tougher sanctions if those meetings yield nothing. Yet, Russia has stood in the way of stronger action against Tehran in the past.

Obama told reporters that he remains committed to negotiating with Iran in "serious fashion" but that "serious, additional sanctions" remain a possibility.

At a key moment in the conflict over Iran's nuclear ambitions, Tehran is speaking more softly, echoing President Barack Obama's call for eliminating nuclear weapons. But it's showing no sign of slowing what the U.S. calls a clandestine march to nuclear arms.

In his address to the U.N. General Assembly on Wednesday, Obama stuck to his two-pronged approach to Iran – acknowledging its right to the peaceful use of nuclear energy while warning of unspecified penalties if it veers onto the weapons path.

"We must insist that the future not belong to fear," he said.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was to speak Wednesday evening, said upon his arrival in New York on Tuesday that he hoped for better relations with Washington.

Still, Ahmadinejad insisted at that time, in an interview with The Associated Press, that Iran's own nuclear work was not up for negotiation.

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