TEHRAN: Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted on Wednesday that Tehran has no plans to build a nuclear bomb, in a speech on the eve of its annual national atomic energy day.Addressing a large gathering in the central city of Isfahan where Iran has a uranium conversion facility, Ahmadinejad referred to US President Barack Obama as saying Iran has no right to have an atomic bomb. "Recently, you (Obama) said that Iran can have nuclear technology for peaceful purpose, but does not have the right to have a bomb," Ahmadinejad said. "I am telling you that the Iranian nation was never seeking a bomb as the era of bombs and armies is over," he said as the crowd cheered with chants of "Death to America."Ahmadinejad said Iran was still waiting for "fundamental and real changes" from Obama and the United States, with whom Tehran has had no diplomatic ties for three decades. "If you are talking of change ... bismillah (In the name of God) ... change your method, your vocabulary and the path towards Iran," the Iranian leader said. "You have extended your hand to us. If you are sincere in it, we welcome it, but if not, then our reply will be same as the one we gave to Mr. (George W.) Bush." On Thursday, Iran is to mark its national atomic energy day in Isfahan where Ahmadinejad is expected to make a key announcement.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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