The world at a glance . . . Europe

Madrid

Prosecuting the Bush administration: A Spanish judge has opened an investigation into alleged torture and war crimes by Bush administration officials. Judge Baltasar Garzón, who is most famous for putting Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet on trial, asked prosecutors to examine complaints against six U.S. officials who created the legal framework for interrogating detainees at Guantánamo Bay. The officials include former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, former Pentagon counsel William Haynes, and former Justice Department official John Yoo—whose legal opinions justified coercive interrogation techniques and denied detainees Geneva Conventions protections. The six are in no immediate danger. If the investigation proceeds, it will be months before any arrest warrants are issued, and the U.S. would be highly unlikely to honor them.

Athens

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Firebomb attacks: Suspected anarchists terrorized Athens this week with a flurry of firebomb attacks that torched banks and car dealerships. The 15-minute daytime spree ended with five banks and seven cars afire. Police said they did not suspect the known Greek terrorist groups. “These were low-grade, erratic hits,” said one official. “Terrorists stage more calculating hits with bombs and submachine guns.” Anarchists have led protests and attacks across Greece since December, when police killed a 15-year-old boy by mistake. In Thessaloniki last week, hooded anarchists smashed storefronts and threw Molotov cocktails at a bank. Greece asked Britain’s Scotland Yard for tips on how to combat the gangs. “If deemed necessary, the police may also turn to the U.S. and France for similar advice,” said National Police spokesman Panagiotis Stathis.

The Hague

U.S.-Iran talks disputed: Iran is denying that a bilateral meeting with the U.S. took place this week at a U.N. conference on aid to Afghanistan. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had said that Richard Holbrooke, the State Department’s special representative on Afghanistan and Pakistan, held a brief and “cordial” exchange with Mehdi Akhundzadeh, Iran’s deputy foreign minister. That’s considered significant, because Iran and the U.S. have had few official meetings since the 1979 hostage crisis. Clinton also said that Iran was given a letter asking about the welfare of three Americans detained or missing in Iran. But Iran, sensitive to any suggestion that it is softening its stance toward the U.S., disputed Clinton’s account. “No meeting or talk, be it formal or informal, official or unofficial between Iran and U.S. officials, took place on the sideline of this conference,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi.