Iran Nuclear chief: New generation centrifuge ready by 2011 - Summary

Fri, 18 Dec 2009

Tehran - The new generation of Iran's uranium-enrichment centrifuges is to be ready by March 2011, the head of Iran's Atomic Organization said Friday. Ali Akbar Salehi told the Fars news agency that the new centrifuges - named IR3 and IR4 - were currently being produced and that after a test period, they would be ready for use by the end of the next Persian year in March 2011.

Iran has been planning since last year to upgrade the technology of its centrifuges to speed up its uranium enrichment.

Salehi said 6,000 centrifuges - believed to be mainly the older models - were now operating in a uranium-enrichment site in Natanz in central Iran.

He also said work on the Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran would be finished by its Russian contractor within the next few months, adding that Norway and Japan offered to cooperate on security issues.

The Bushehr plant was supposed to be completed 10 years ago, but work was delayed by Russia for various reasons, including political considerations.

As Iran has no other partners for its nuclear projects, owing to international suspicion over its intentions, the Islamic state so far had to be patient with Moscow, but the Iranian parliament expressed doubt over Russia's sincerity to complete the plant.

According to Salehi, Japan however has stated its willingness to cooperate with Iran on nuclear technology.

Iran insists it has the right to pursue peaceful nuclear development as a signatory of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and rejects Western charges that it is working on a secret nuclear program to make an atomic bomb.

However, its lack of transparency regarding its nuclear program and refusal to suspend uranium enrichment have led to several United Nations Security Council sanctions resolutions against the Islamic state.

In another interview with ISNA news agency reported, Salehi said that "Iran was still ready to take the path of understanding with the West" over the nuclear dispute.

"Some Western countries are unfortunately influenced by the international Zionist lobby," Salehi said, alleging interference from Iran's regional enemy Israel. "We however still hope that the wise part of the West will prevail over the less-wise part and avail itself of the opportunity (of continuing talks)."

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeid Jalili will visit Tokyo over the weekend and hold talks in his four-day visit with Japanese officials over both the nuclear dispute and future nuclear cooperation, Salehi said.

He added that Iran was still interested in implementing the IAEA brokered plan to send 3.5 per cent Iranian low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Russia and France to be enriched to 20 per cent to be eventually used as fuel for the Tehran medical reactor.

"Although we can do the 20 per cent enrichment by ourselves, we still prefer to buy it and we hope the West would get this message and avail itself of this opportunity (to settle the nuclear dispute)," Salehi said.

Iran says it has not rejected the initial plan but wants the swap to be made inside Iran, but both the IAEA and the world powers want to implement the initial IAEA plan and have given Iran until the end of the year.

"They (world powers) can give whatever deadline they want but they know well that Iran would not give in to any imposed time-limits," the atomic chief said, adding that neither sanctions nor military attacks would have any effect on Iran's decisions.

Iranian dissident cleric Montazeri dies at 87

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's most senior dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, has died, his grandson said Sunday. He was 87.

Nasser Montazeri said his grandfather, who was seen as the spiritual father of Iran's reform movement, died in his sleep overnight.

Montazeri had been designated to succeed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late founder of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, but the two had a falling out a few months before Khomeini died of cancer in 1989.

Iran's current Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, succeeded Khomeini instead and has been the target of escalating criticism by Iran's opposition movement since June's disputed presidential vote.

Montazeri had repeatedly accused the country's ruling Islamic establishment of imposing dictatorship in the name of Islam.

In 1997, Montazeri was place under house arrest in Qom, 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of Tehran, after saying Khamenei wasn't qualified to rule.

The penalty was lifted in 2003, but Montazeri remained defiant, repeatedly accusing the country's ruling Islamic establishment of imposing dictatorship in the name of Islam. He said the liberation that was supposed to follow the 1979 revolution never happened.

Montazeri was one of just a few Grand Ayatollahs — the most senior theologians of the Shiite Muslim faith.

After he was placed under house arrest, state-run media stopped referring to Montazeri by his religious title, describing him instead as a "simple-minded" cleric. Any talk about Montazeri was strongly discouraged, references to him in schoolbooks were removed and streets named after him were renamed.

Montazeri was still respected by many Iranians, who observed his religious rulings or supported his calls for democratic change within the ruling establishment.

On Saturday, after months of denials, Iran acknowledged that at least three people detained in the country's postelection turmoil were beaten to death by their jailers.

The surprise announcement by the hard-line judiciary confirmed one of the opposition's most devastating and embarrassing claims against authorities and the elite Revolutionary Guard forces that led the crackdown after the vote in June.

Turkey's Gul to visit Kuwait for high-level talks

President Abdullah Gul will pay a two-day state visit to Kuwait on December 21 and 22.

State Minister & Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, deputies and businessmen will accompany President Gul during the visit.

President Gul is set to meet with Amir Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jabir al-Sabah of Kuwait on Monday.

He will also receive Crown Prince Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Jabir al-Sabah and Prime Minister Nasir al-Muhammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah.

After attending Turkey-Kuwait Business Forum to be held with the participation of Turkish and Kuwaiti businessmen, President Gul will join ceremonies marking the 75th anniversary of Kuwaiti Oil Company with Amir Sheikh Sabah.

Bilateral political, economic and commercial relations between Turkey and Kuwait will be high on agenda of President Gul's scheduled meetings.

Source: World Bulletin.
Link: http://www.worldbulletin.net/news_detail.php?id=51522.

PNA denies any security cooperation with CIA

RAMALLAH, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinian National Authority (PNA) denied on Friday an alleged report which claimed that there was security cooperation between the PNA and the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Adnan Damiry, spokesman of the PNA security apparatuses, denied a report published by the British daily The Guardian that the U.S. intelligence plays a role in aiding the PNA in cracking down on Hamas movement's members and activists in the West Bank.

"This report is totally untrue and rootless," said Damiry, adding "it is fabricated." He called on The Guardian "to check the accuracy of its report before publishing it."

"We have no cooperation with CIA, and all that we have in Palestine is a small security force that tries to restore discipline and calm."

Meanwhile, Gaza Strip ruling Islamic Hamas movement accused the United States of being involved in the war the PNA carried out against its members and leaders in the West Bank.

Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said in a new conference held in Gaza that the report of the British newspaper "is totally true," adding "Hamas members in the West Bank are detained and badly tortured by the PNA security apparatuses."

"The report and the massive arrests against Hamas members in the West Bank indicate that there is a strong cooperation between Ramallah authority and the American CIA," said Abu Zuhri.

He added that all the testimonies that Hamas movement got from its members imprisoned by the PNA security forces were "proof that the CIA cooperates with the PNA in arresting and torturing Hamas members."

Storm continues to wallop East Coast, heads north

By GEOFF MULVIHILL, Associated Press Writer

CHERRY HILL, N.J. – A slow-moving storm that blanketed swaths of the mid-Atlantic with nearly 2 feet of snow headed northward Sunday, continuing its assault on the East Coast after causing at least five deaths, crippling travel and leaving empty stores normally crammed with holiday shoppers.

As it approaches New England on the cusp of the winter solstice, the storm has already been one for the ages. It caused flooding in South Florida and knocked out electricity for more than 85,000 customers in the Carolinas on Friday. On Saturday, it dropped 16 inches of snow on Reagan National Airport outside Washington — the most ever recorded there for a single December day — and gave southern New Jersey its highest single-storm snowfall totals in nearly four years.

Some of the deepest snow Saturday may have been in the Philadelphia suburb of Medford, N.J., where it was measured at 24 inches.

Those who did travel were met with "the worst conditions we've seen in many years in the Garden State," said David Weinstein, a spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic.

Even the NFL, with its hallowed tradition of playing in all weather conditions, including "frozen tundras," pushed back the scheduled start times of games Sunday in Baltimore and Philadelphia.

Around New York City, the brunt of the storm hit Long Island, with nearly 2 feet recorded in Upton. Crews clearing roads early Sunday reported whiteout conditions, said Lt. Robert P. Iberger of the Southampton police.

Ten inches of snow had already fallen on New York City by Sunday morning, and the storm could be the worst the city has seen since about 26 inches fell in Central Park in February 2006, National Weather Service meteorologist Patrick Maloit said. Transit workers in New York were clearing subway tracks and platforms overnight, and delays were expected on bus, subway and train routes, city transit spokesman Paul Fleuranges said early Sunday.

The National Weather Service expected the storm to dump as much as 15 inches in southern New England with the heaviest snowfall expected early Sunday. A blizzard warning was in effect Sunday morning in parts of New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts.

With strong wind gusts to keep the powdery snow swirling, the storm was so bad on Saturday that attractions such as the Smithsonian museums in Washington and the Philadelphia Zoo were closed. The National Mall, normally swarming with tourists, instead was the scene of snowball fights.

The snow brought a sense of wonderment to George Johnson of Pennsauken, N.J., who ventured out Saturday to buy boots for his 1-year-old granddaughter, Talia, so she could play in the snow for the first time.

Not all shoppers were deterred by the snow.

"It really helped me get in the Christmas spirit," said the Kathryn Mariani, who took a train to downtown Philadelphia from her home in the Germantown neighborhood.

The mayors of Washington and Philadelphia and the governors of Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware all declared states of emergency.

In West Virginia, blankets were given to hundreds of drivers, and some motorists were stranded for up to 27 hours on highways, Red Cross spokesman Jeff Morris said.

Falling on the last weekend before Christmas, the snow came a time when roads are traditionally mad with holiday shoppers. But around shopping centers in Philadelphia's New Jersey suburbs on Saturday, traffic was sparse and slow.

Prime parking spots were available all day at the Cherry Hill Mall. And inside, there was no line for a picture with Santa. "It was fantastic," said Chris Bailey, who got pictures of his 4-year-old daughter Olivia.

Shops at the mall and nearby restaurants closed hours early.

Salt trucks and plows were out in force. On stretches of roads including the New Jersey Turnpike, the speed limit was reduced.

But those measures didn't prevent scores of cars from slipping into ditches.

One person in Virginia was killed in a traffic accident caused by slick roads, and authorities said the weather may have contributed to another traffic death there. A third death in Virginia is believed to have been caused by exposure. In Ohio, two people were killed in accidents on snow-covered roads hit by the same storm system.

In New Jersey, a bus got stuck on snow-covered railroad tracks in Pennsauken and was hit by a train. The only reported injury was a minor one suffered by the train's engineer, NJ Transit spokesman Dan Stessel said.

Greyhound shut down service in Washington and points north, and ferry service in Delaware and New Jersey was canceled.

Airports in the Northeast were also jammed up. Most flights were canceled at several, including Reagan National and Dulles in the Washington area; Philadelphia International; New York's three major airports and Logan Airport in Boston. The cancellations rippled across the country; more than 150 flights were canceled in and out of Chicago's airports, as were a handful in Denver.

Philadelphia Airport spokeswoman Phyllis VanIstendal said snacks and pillows were being handed out there to travelers stranded overnight.

She said with continuing bad weather and planes out of place, problems would continue Sunday.

At National, Juan Carlos Franco waited in line Saturday with his wife, 2-year-old son and 6-month-old daughter to rebook their flights to Quito, Ecuador, but was expecting to fly out no sooner than Wednesday. They had checked and rechecked the status of their flight for two days, but it wasn't canceled until a few minutes after they entered the security line, Franco said.

"The backpacks were in the X-ray machine," he said.

Spanish Astronomers Claim Dwarf Sun Beyond Pluto

by Gary Vey for viewzone

The idea of a new planet being discovered in our Solar System is pretty exciting. Even more so because of the many theories about "planet-x" or "Nibiru" being associated with space aliens and the doomsday prophecies of 2012.

Scientists at places like NASA and famous observatories have deflected inquiries about the discovery for a few years now, mainly because they feared being associated with these "fringe" theories. But like it or not -- it has happened. Well... according to a team of Spanish artronomers who call themselves the StarViewer Team.

The group made the rounds of all the news web sites in the past two weeks, claiming they discovered something very significant. It's almost twice the size of Jupiter and just beyond our furthest planetoid, Pluto. Although it's not a planet, it appears to have planets or large satellites encircling it. It's what astronomers call a "brown dwarf star" and its official name is "G1.9".

What's a Brown Dwarf Star?

First we'll explain WHAT these astronomers have discovered. Then we'll discuss HOW they discovered it.

At the risk of being scientifically vague, I'll try to explain the current understanding of how stars and planets form in space.

All matter attracts other matter. A larger mass will attract smaller masses towards it. In space this results in growing clouds of matter that tend to clump together and attract more matter. Since most of the matter in space is gaseous, these clouds eventually get so dense that they collapse into dense gaseous spheres. When they do this there is usually some "left over" matter that forms a ring around the sphere.

If there is enough matter in a sphere of hydrogen, for example, it can cause so much compression at the shpere's core that the hydrogen atoms begin to fuse together and a fusion-reaction ignites a new born star. In this reaction two hydrogen atoms join together to form one helium atom and release extra energy as radiation.

Scientists believe that the minimum mass needed to ignite a sun is about 13 times the known mass of the planet Jupiter -- written as "13MJ." If the mass is lower than this, the pressure in the core is not enough to ignite and the sphere will be hot ball of gas called a "brown dwarf."

As a new star spins, the disk surrounding it gradually cools and the matter forms heavier elements like metals and minerals. These "rocks" eventually clump together and form solid spheres called planets.

Sometimes a solid sphere will attract some of the gas that is in the disk and this will result in a gaseous giant, like Jupiter and Saturn, which has a solid core but a thick gaseous atmosphere. These "gas giant" planets can be very massive but, because of their solid cores, they will never ignite and become stars.

This Brown Dwarf

This newly discovered "brown dwarf" is believed to have formed from the same condensed matter that gave birth to our Sun. It is believed that, after the large planets formed around the Sun, they pushed it to the edge of the Solar system where it formed a sphere about 1.9MJ -- well below the mass needed to ignite it as a "sun."

Many suns that we observe in the galaxy are part of binary systems or double stars. There is debate about how two suns form from a single condensed cloud of matter. Some believe that they both form at the same time; others believe they split following the creation of one huge sun.

Sometimes both spheres are capable of fusion and both suns shine brightly, encircling each other around an imaginary point call the barycenter. Sometimes only one sun attains 13MJ and ignites, while its smaller companion, the brown dwarf, glows dimly and radiates heat. Astronomers usually can only see the brightest of the two, but because they both circle around a common barycenter, the wobble reveals the mass of the unseen companion.

We are close to our Sun and within its gravitational influence. So as we are travel through space, it appears to us that the G1.9 is moving in an eclipse between our furthest planetoid, Pluto, and the edge of our Solar system, near the Oort Cloud.

The newly discovered brown dwarf is reported to be located just about 60 to 66 AU (1 AU=the distance from the Sun to Earth) from us (its parigee), currently in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius. Because of periodic gravitational disturbances in areas of space further out, specifically in the Oort Cloud, the Spanish group of astronomers believe G1.9 travels in an elliptical orbit extending possibly hundreds of AU beyond the furthest known planets (its apogee). Its position just beyond Pluto suggests it is at its closest approach to the Sun and Earth.

Space appears relatively free of debris inside the planetary orbits. This is because the gravitational pull of each planet (a large mass) effectively collects the interplanetary debris (small mass). But there are exceptions.

How it was discovered... the controversy

You might well ask why astronomers have never detected this object before. In fact they did. G1.9 was first identified as a "supernova remnant" in 1984 by Dave Green of the University of Cambridge and later studied in greater detail with NRAO's Very Large Array radio telescope in 1985. Because it was unusually small for a supernova it was thought to be young -- less than about 1000 years old.

But in 2007, X-ray observations made with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory revealed that the object was much larger than the last time it was observed! It had grown in size by 16%. Puzzled by this observation, the Very Large Array repeated its observations of 23 years ago and verified that it had increased in size considerably. Knowing that supernova do not expand this quickly, unless they have just exploded, they explained that G1.9 must be a "very young" supernova -- perhaps not more than 150 years old. But no record of a visible supernova has been found corresponding to that historical period (about the time of the American Civil War).

Spanish astronomers have tracked this object with great interest because they were anticipating its appearance. Gravitational anomalies have been appearing in the Oort Cloud for some time, suggesting the perturbations were caused by a nearby object with considerable mass. The announcement that G1.9 had increased in size was no mystery to them. It is exactly what they would expect as the object moved closer to Earth.

Relocation of Myanmarese, Bangladeshi migrants rejected

Sunday, December 20, 2009 4:43 PM

Apriadi Gunawan , The Jakarta Post , Medan | Sat, 12/19/2009 1:05 PM | The Archipelago

Residents rejected on Friday a relocation of 195 refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh from Aceh to a housing complex in Medan, North Sumatra.

Meanwhile, the Rohingya boatpeople hoped they could recieve Indonesian citizenship.

The residents threatened violence if the government decided to settle the immigrants at the Tempua housing complex in Medan's Sunggal district.

Nazaruddin, one of the residents, said they were surprised to find the foreigners were being accommodated in their housing complex without prior notification.

"Residents here disagree with *moving the* immigrants into the housing complex. We will use violence if the foreigners stay here," Nazaruddin said.

To avoid clashes between the immigrants and local residents, officers from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Polonia Immigration Office, Medan, evacuated the immigrants from the housing complex to a foundation office at the Education and Training Center on Jl. Cempaka, Medan Selayang district.

In the center, the refugees were seen resting after being bussed in from Aceh.

Rahmat Larosa of Polonia Immigration Office admitted that relocating the immigrants from the housing complex to the center was their only option to avoid any conflict.

Rahmat said the immigrants would stay at the center temporarily while waiting for a decision by the Directorate General of Immigration.

Meanwhile, the immigrants said they did not know why they were relocated from Aceh to Medan.

Muhammad Yunus, an immigrant from Myanmar, said the IOM, who facilitated the relocation, promised to give the immigrants residency documents after they arrived in Medan.

Yunus hoped the Indonesian President would be willing to give them residency.

"We want to become Indonesian citizens," he said.

The immigrants, 147 Myanmarese and 48 Bangladeshis, arrived in Indonesia on Jan. 7, this year when their boat washed ashore on Sabang Island in Aceh. The immigrants were originally detained and processed at the Sabang Island Naval Base.

The Foreign Ministry said the boatpeople were to be repatriated to Bangladesh once their identity verification was cleared by their countries of origin.

There are 388 Rohingya people in Aceh, all fled Myanmar and Bangladesh because of poverty and alleged government persecution.

The Rohingya number about 750,000 in Myanmar, but are not recognized as a distinct ethnicity. Rights groups say they face forced labor, land seizures, rape and murder.

Thousands have risked their lives in dangerous boats fleeing to neighboring countries like Thailand, Malaysia, Bangladesh and India.