WATADA'S TRIAL TO BEGIN OCT. 9

FORT LEWIS, Wash. — Army officials said yesterday the second court-martial for a Honolulu-born officer who refused to deploy to Iraq has been moved to Oct. 9.

Lt. Ehren Watada's trial was to begin next week, but government and defense attorneys requested a new date.

Watada is charged with missing deployment in June 2006 and conduct unbecoming an officer for comments made about President Bush and the Iraq war. If convicted, he faces six years in prison and dishonorable discharge.

He contends the war is illegal. His first trial ended in a mistrial.

TWO AMERICANS PUT ON IRAN TV

TEHRAN, Iran — Two Iranian-Americans imprisoned here on national security charges appeared yesterday for the first time on state television, with one saying in a brief video clip that his foundation may have targeted "the world of Islam."

The TV images followed Iran's announcement this month that fresh evidence had pushed its judiciary to launch new investigations into the cases of Haleh Esfandiari and Kian Tajbakhsh.

Tajbakhsh, an urban planning consultant with the New York-based George Soros Open Society Institute; and Esfandiari, director of the Middle East program at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, have been held in Tehran since being arrested separately in May on charges of endangering national security.

THREE UNIVERSITY OFFICIALS SACKED

YPSILANTI, Mich. — Three Eastern Michigan University administrators, including the president, have been fired, months after top school officials were accused of covering up the rape and slaying of a student by publicly ruling out foul play.

President John Fallon was fired, and Vice President of Student Affairs Jim Vick and Public Safety Director Cindy Hall lost their jobs at the 23,500-student public university, officials said yesterday.

BRITAIN EXPELS 4 RUSSIAN ENVOYS

LONDON — Prime Minister Gordon Brown's new government ordered the expulsion of four Russian diplomats yesterday over the Kremlin's refusal to extradite the key suspect in the fatal poisoning of a former KGB spy — Britain's first use of the sanction in more than 10 years.

Russia threatened retaliation, marking a new low point in Britain's relations with Moscow under President Vladimir Putin.