Iran declares major breakthroughs in nuclear drive

TEHRAN: Iran declared on Thursday major advances in its controversial atomic drive as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad opened a nuclear fuel plant and announced the testing of two high capacity centrifuges.

Ahmadinejad's announcements at a function in Isfahan province marking national nuclear day are likely to trigger fresh concerns among world powers, who fear Iran's nuclear programme is aimed at making atomic weapons, but Washington's first reactions were skeptical.

Tehran insists its programme is for peaceful purposes only.

Ahmadinejad said Iran has notched up two achievements -- the manufacture of nuclear fuel and "testing of two kinds of new centrifuges having greater capacity (to enrich uranium) than the existing ones."

He was speaking after cutting the ribbon at the fuel facility in Isfahan, which the Mehr news agency said can produce 10 tonnes of nuclear fuel annually to feed the heavy water 40-megawatt Arak reactor and 30 tonnes for light water reactors such as the Bushehr nuclear plant.

The fuel for Bushehr has to meet Russian technical specifications, as the plant has been constructed by Moscow and will be initially operated by Russian engineers.

The opening of the fuel plant indicates that Iran has mastered the complete nuclear fuel cycle from uranium mining to enrichment, even as world powers urge the Islamic republic to halt its programme completely.

"Today the nuclear fuel cycle has been practically completed and there is no room for the idea of halting (uranium) enrichment in the negotiations" with global powers, the head of Iran's parliamentary commission of national security and foreign policy, Alaeddin Borujerdi, said after the plant was opened.

Speaking at the same function as Ahmadinejad, atomic chief Gholam Reza Aghazadeh said Iran has reached a "new phase of acquiring the technolgy of uranium enrichment." "Today in Natanz there are around 7,000 centrifuges installed," he said of the uranium enrichment facility in Isfahan province. On February 25, he said Iran had 6,000 centrifuges installed there.

In its February 19 report, the International Atomic Energy Agency said 3,964 centrifuges were actively enriching uranium in Natanz.

The UN body said another 1,476 were undergoing vacuum or dry run tests without nuclear material and 125 had been installed but remained stationary.

Uranium enrichment is at the heart of global fears that Iran is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons, because the process can be used both to make nuclear fuel and the fissile core of an atom bomb.

World powers are concerned that Iran could configure the Arak plant in such a way that it can be used to help make an atom bomb, but Tehran says the reactor is planned to make isotopes only for agricultural and health purposes.

Commenting on Thursday's news, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said "I think we certainly could view it with skepticism."

"Iran has in the past, you know, announced that it is -- it was running a certain number of centrifuges that didn't really pan out with regard to the IAEA's own estimate.

"So it's not clear."

Iran is in defiance of five UN Security Council resolutions calling for a freeze of enrichment, including three resolutions imposing sanctions.

On Wednesday, in a bid to defuse tensions, six world powers led by Washington invited Iran for direct talks on the programme.

In a joint statement, the United States, Britain, Russia, China, France, and Germany said EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana has been tasked to invite Iran for direct talks on its nuclear plans.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington will participate fully in the talks.

"There's nothing more important than trying to convince Iran to cease its effort to obtain nuclear weapons," Clinton said.

And Wood reiterated that Washington would seek to engage with Iran "without preconditions" even as "concerns remain" about Iran's nuclear aims.

During his speech Ahmadinejad said the talks should be based on mutual respect.

"No free man will accept one-sided or conditional talks under intimidatory atmosphere," he said.

"The Iranian nation has always been ready for talks. We welcome change ... We think the time for big change has come."

Earlier Thursday, presidential advisor Ali Akbar Javanfekr said Tehran will study the "constructive proposal" from the six world powers which "shows a change of approach" by them.

"We hope that this proposal means a change of approach to a more realistic attitude. The Islamic Republic of Iran will examine (it) and give its response."

India's swine flu death rate is increasing

Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in...

Snake bite deaths

Monday, July 06, 2009 COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan government recorded some 33,000 snake bites in 2008, with most of the victims coming from remote villages.The Department of Government Information said in a statement that most of the snake bite cases could be fatal if neglected.The statement said snake bites are often neglected in Sri Lanka as victims do not seek treatment at hospitals where advanced medication is available. Instead, the victims rush to traditional type of treatment which could be a risk, reports Xinhua.Snake bites death at domestic level, outside hospitals, go unrecorded, said the statement.Most victims of snake bite are from the rural and remote villages where there is no electricity after dusk.Statistics show that Sri Lanka has over 90 species of snake with around 10 species possessing venom capable of killing a human being.In Sri Lanka the annual death rate due to snake bite envenoming is one of the highest in the world being 6 in 100,000 population.

Suicide bombings kill 18 in Iraq

Thursday, August 13, 2009 MOSUL: At least 18 people, most of them members of the ancient Yazidi religious sect, were killed when two suicide bombers blew themselves up on Thursday in a packed cafe in northern Iraq, a local government official said.At least 31 people were also wounded after the bombers detonated suicide belts packed with explosives in the cafe in Kalaa town, in the district of Sanjar, local district chief Dakheel Qassem Hasoon, told a foreign news agency."Two suicide bombers entered the Cafe Barbaroz at 4:30 pm (1330 GMT) and blew themselves up, killing 18 civilians and wounding 31. Most of the victims were Yazidis," Hasoon said.Kalaa, northwest of the insurgent stronghold of Mosul in northern Nineveh province is predominantly populated by the minority Yazidi religious sect, as well as Arabs and Kurds.The attack is the deadliest since Monday, when 51 people were killed across Iraq, including 28 members of the tiny Shabak sect cut down when two truck bombs det...

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