BRUSSELS, Belgium — The European Commission said Thursday it will investigate reports that the CIA set up secret jails in eastern Europe.

The governments of the European Union's 25 member nations will be informally questioned about the allegations, EU spokesman Friso Roscam Abbing said.

He said such prisons could violate EU human rights laws and other European human rights conventions, and as the watchdog to ensure EU rules are properly adhered to the commission would look into the issue. He cautioned that the EU head office as such could not take action against member states if they violated human rights.

U.S. officials refused to confirm or deny a report by the Washington Post that the CIA has been hiding and interrogating top al-Qaida suspects at a Soviet-era compound in several eastern European countries, some of which are EU member states.

According to the report, a covert prison system was set up by the CIA nearly four years ago which at various times included sites in eight countries, including Afghanistan and several eastern Europe nations. It quoted current and former intelligence officials and diplomats as sources for its story.

Iran's hard-line regime firing 40 ambassadors, including backers of warmer ties with West

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's government announced Wednesday that 40 ambassadors and senior diplomats, including supporters of warmer ties with the West, will be fired, continuing a purge of reformers as the regime takes an increasingly tough stance at home and abroad.The diplomatic changes are part of a government shakeup by ultraconservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that includes putting Islamic hardliners in key posts at security agencies. Some Iranians worry the president will bring back strict social policies.Ahmadinejad has steered the Persian state into a more confrontational stance in its dealings with other nations, particularly in facing suspicions about whether Iran's nuclear program is illicitly trying to develop nuclear weapons, a charge the regime denies.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan's official earthquake death toll jumped by 16,000, and officials warned Wednesday that it is likely to rise further as relief supplies fail to reach thousands of victims stranded in remote parts of the Himalayas.The announcement, which puts the official toll at 73,000, brings the central government figures closer to the number reported by local officials, who say the Oct. 8 quake killed at least 79,000 people in Pakistan."Just imagine how many villages and towns became a heap of rubble and how many people got buried," said Maj. Gen. Farooq Ahmed Khan told reporters.Khan said 73,276 people have been confirmed dead in Pakistan and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, up from the official count of 57,597. In India's portion of Kashmir, an additional 1,350 people died.More than 69,000 people had severe injuries, with the total number of injured much higher, the general said.Khan attributed the spike in deaths to bodies being recovered from the debris, and warned "there is likelihood of further increase" in the death toll.Top U.N. relief coordinator Jan Egeland told PBS "there are many thousands, potentially tens of thousands, up there in the mountains that are wounded we haven't gotten to." He said a "second wave of death" could come from "people who could freeze to death, starve to death, or just be sick because of infected water."Egeland said foreign aid for the quake relief has so far been far less than what it was following last year's Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, which killed 178,000 people and left an additional 50,000 missing.By The Associated Press