Enlarge Ronald Zak/AP
The International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, is sending a team to Iran on Sunday to further look into the country’s nuclear program. Here, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s ambassador to the agency, is shown at an IAEA meeting in Vienna on Nov. 18, 2011.
Ronald Zak/AP
The International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, is sending a team to Iran on Sunday to further look into the country’s nuclear program. Here, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s ambassador to the agency, is shown at an IAEA meeting in Vienna on Nov. 18, 2011.
A senior delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency visits Iran on Sunday in a renewed attempt to probe aspects of Iran’s nuclear program that could be connected to nuclear weapons work.
For years, the IAEA has been trying to get answers to some very uncomfortable questions about Iran’s nuclear program.
Iran insists it has only a peaceful, civilian nuclear program, and so far it has refused to discuss evidence that it is engaging in some nuclear weapons work. But international pressure on Tehran is growing.
The Iranians have dismissed the matter, claiming the intelligence that the agency has comes from the United States and Israel, and is forged.
But in a detailed report last November, the IAEA said it now possesses consistent intelligence on Iran’s activities from numerous states.
That’s not so easy to dismiss, according to Leonard Spector, a specialist on nuclear proliferation at the Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in Monterey, Calif.
“The Iranians have been put on the spot by the actual content of the last IAEA report, you know, accusing them of being involved in militarily related activities,” he says.
Spector notes there are several areas where Iran has pursued nuclear activities that could only be related to weapons.
“There are questions about experiments with explosives which would be relevant to detonating a nuclear device,” he says. “There are documents that they have regarding certain components that are shaped in a way that would only be suitable for a nuclear device.”
The agency also possesses intelligence on Iran’s work with neutron initiators that are used to spark a nuclear detonation.
Multiple Sources
And it has received this information from as many as 10 nations, notes Muhammad Sahimi, an Iran analyst who writes for the website Tehran Bureau.
The Iranians have been put on the spot by the Read rest of entry
Cheap cameras and accessible network technologies have made remote home monitoring the sort of thing you can set up yourself on a whim over lunch. But not all do-it-yourself security solutions are made equal. Each has its own set of irks, quirks and perks. We took a look at a couple of systems currently gaining [...]
Rafael van der Vaart’s speculative long shot just before halftime sent Tottenham Hotspur into the FA Cup fifth round with a fortunate 1-0 win over Watford on Friday. The Dutchman’s 25-yard strike eluded Watford keeper Scott Loach to ease the Premier League side’s nerves after Championship (second division) side Watford had dominated possession in the [...]
Enlarge Ronald Zak/AP The International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, is sending a team to Iran on Sunday to further look into the country’s nuclear program. Here, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s ambassador to the agency, is shown at an IAEA meeting in Vienna on Nov. 18, 2011. Ronald Zak/AP The International Atomic Energy Agency, or [...]
“TIP OF THE ICEBERG”: NeuroSky, Inc.’s brain-computer interface shown here just scratches the surface of what is possible thanks to advances in mobile electroencephalographic (EEG) brain-wave detection technology, says University of California, San Diego’s Scott Makeig. Image: Courtesy of Neurosky, Inc. A fighter pilot heads back to base after a long mission, feeling spent. A [...]
With traditional social safety nets in tatters, welfare and charitable organisations offer alternatives for struggling families. By Maria Paravantes for Southeast European Times in Athens — 27/01/12 There is an alarming increase in child neglect as a consequence of the economic crisis, according to the children’s protection organisation Hamogelo tou Paidiou. [Courtesy of Hamogelo tou [...]
Caterham are determined to take another step forward this season in Formula One, but are refusing to make any bold predictions after learning their lesson from a year ago. Under last season’s guise as Lotus, and ahead of only their second campaign in F1, there were those within the team who suggested an eighth-place finish [...]
Just 16 games into their new partnership, Blake Griffin and Chris Paul are already capable of grinding out victories for the Los Angeles Clippers on nights when nothing seems to work properly. They are both certain the Clippers will find their flow pretty soon. Griffin scored 20 points, Paul added 18 points and seven assists [...]
IF TODAY IS YOUR BIRTHDAY: If you are clear in your mind about what it is you are hoping to accomplish then no force on earth can stop you. By this time next year what is at present no more than dream will be your everyday reality. Enjoy! ARIES (March 21 – April 20): This [...]
The Central bank reduced debt by extending maturities and decreasing share of foreign currency denominated bonds Moody’s raised Uruguay’s outlook from stable 13 months after lifting the rating to Ba1, or one level below investment grade. “A steady improvement in Uruguay’s sovereign credit profile as a result of a strong and continued commitment by the [...]
My interests in the past 50 years as imam of the Ismaili community have been primarily focused on Africa, South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East – and on improving the quality of life for the people who live there. The more I think about this matter, the more I am convinced that one [...]
Facebook and the state of Washington sued a company on Thursday they accused of a practice called “clickjacking” that fools users of the world’s top social network into visiting advertising sites, divulging personal information and spreading the scam to friends. The scheme, also known as “likejacking” because victims are tricked into using Facebook’s “Like” button [...]
Enlarge MediaFire.com File-sharing sites like MediaFire and RapidShare have tried to distance themselves from Megaupload.com after it was shut down last week for copyright infringement and racketeering. MediaFire.com File-sharing sites like MediaFire and RapidShare have tried to distance themselves from Megaupload.com after it was shut down last week for copyright infringement and racketeering. A week [...]
Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas on Friday insisted QPR’s Anton Ferdinand should shake hands with John Terry before Saturday’s FA Cup clash at Loftus Road. Villas-Boas said he hoped and expected Ferdinand not to snub Terry, despite allegations the Rangers defender was the victim of a racist slur from the England captain during October’s Barclays Premier [...]
Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum stunned political observers with his performance in the Iowa caucuses. But he finished fifth in the New Hampshire primary, and a distant third in South Carolina’s primary. With just days to go before the Florida primary, Santorum is struggling to get attention as the news media focus on the fight [...]
Andy Murray’s hopes of reaching a third successive Australian Open final were extinguished by Novak Djokovic after an extraordinary five-set encounter in Melbourne on Friday night. It seemed Murray was on track to record his fifth victory in 11 meetings with the Serbian when he led two sets to one and with the world number [...]
U.S. ratings agency Fitch says it is downgrading the credit ratings for five European nations including leading economic heavyweights Italy and Spain. The agency on Friday lowered credit ratings for the five nations by one notch and placed a negative outlook on all of them, as well as on Ireland. Those nations downgraded included Belgium, [...]
He is Mr. Authentic in the Republican leadership race. Texas Congressman Ron Paul is a super-long shot to win the GOP nomination to take on Barack Obama, but every time he takes the stage during TV debates he expresses a candour and authenticity that endears him to audiences. During the CNN debate in Jacksonville, Florida [...]
Video Image Aussie adventurers take on the ice They’ve already set a world record, now Cas and Jonesy are embarking on a world first expedition across the South Pole / Kate Midena Australians Justin Jones (L), and James Castrission (R), have travelled unaided from the edge of Antarctica to the South Pole and back. Picture: [...]
Figures for the department chain’s penultimate week of its financial year showed sales up 15.2% at the Croydon ‘at home’ branch. Poole’s John Lewis at home store also performed well, with a 13.8% increase on last year. The company reported that all four home buying groups were up year-on-year and are now cumulatively ahead for [...]
Bayern Munich’s Facebook publicity stunt backfired on themselves after failing to deliver on a promised ‘big signing’ via the social website. An announcement on Bayern Munich’s official facebook page announce that the club was going to sign a new offensive player and asked for fans to log on to the page at 2pm CET for [...]
My interests in the past 50 years as imam of the Ismaili community have been primarily focused on Africa, South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East – and on improving the quality of life for the people who live there. The more I think about this matter, the more I am convinced that one [...]
He is Mr. Authentic in the Republican leadership race. Texas Congressman Ron Paul is a super-long shot to win the GOP nomination to take on Barack Obama, but every time he takes the stage during TV debates he expresses a candour and authenticity that endears him to audiences. During the CNN debate in Jacksonville, Florida [...]
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard stumbled and was caught by a security guard as riot police forced a path for her through a crowd of rowdy protesters following a ceremony to mark Australia’s national day Thursday. Some 200 supporters of indigenous rights surrounded a Canberra restaurant and banged its windows while Ms. Gillard and opposition [...]
Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich called on Wednesday for a base on the moon and an expanded federal purse for prize money to stimulate private-sector space projects. “We want Americans to think boldly about the future,” Mr. Gingrich said during a campaign rally in Florida, where he outlined a space policy initiative that would cut [...]
U.S. President Barack Obama added to the growing narrative around a commander-in-chief who has authorized gutsy military strikes to secure the freedom of captive Americans and eliminate the country’s enemies. On the day Mr. Obama delivered his televised State of the Union address, U.S. special forces carried out a successful rescue operation to free an [...]
Tens of thousands of Egyptians rallied Wednesday to mark the first anniversary of the country’s 2011 uprising, with liberals and Islamists gathering on different sides of Cairo’s Tahrir Square in a reflection of the deep political divides that emerged in the year since the downfall of longtime leader Hosni Mubarak. Groups like the Muslim Brotherhood [...]
The attacks were horrific. Hundreds of women and children were hunted down and brutally shot, stabbed or beaten to death. Towns and villages were burned to the ground, leaving 120,000 people homeless and thousands hiding in the bush. The shocking reports from witnesses and aid workers are still trickling out of remote districts of South [...]
The organizers of an Indian literary festival have cancelled a video conference with author Salman Rushdie after protests and threats. Sanjoy Roy said Tuesday they decided to cancel the video address to avoid violence by Muslim activists gathered at the Jaipur Literary Festival. Mr. Rushdie had originally planned to attend the festival in person despite [...]
A newly aggressive Mitt Romney charged in campaign debate Monday night that Newt Gingrich “resigned in disgrace” from Congress after four years as speaker and then spent the next 15 years “working as an influence peddler” in Washington. Mr. Gingrich shot back that Mr. Romney’s attacks were riddled with falsehoods, and he referred to statements [...]
A defiant Republican base let out what a former ally termed a “primal scream” in picking Newt Gingrich in the South Carolina presidential primary. But will GOP voters elsewhere join the chorus or recoil in horror at the prospect of the pugnacious ex-speaker carrying the nomination? Mr. Gingrich’s massive victory in Saturday’s vote, besting onetime [...]
Syria on Monday rejected the Arab League’s wide-ranging new plan to end the country’s 10-month crisis, saying the League’s call for a national unity government in two months is a clear violation of Syrian sovereignty. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people poured into the streets in a suburb outside the capital, Damascus, to mourn 11 [...]
Republicans woke up Sunday to the suddenly real prospect that their party could buck every unwritten rule and chose the insurgent candidate over the establishment favourite as their presidential nominee for the first time since 1964. But as shocking as Newt Gingrich’s win in Saturday’s South Carolina primary seemed to some, given his roller-coaster campaign, [...]
Somali insurgents say that a U.S. drone strike killed an al-Qaeda official fighting alongside them in Somalia. A statement from the insurgent al-Kataib media foundation late Saturday says that three missiles fired from an unmanned aerial vehicle hit Bilal al-Berjawi’s car on the outskirts of Mogadishu. Mr. Berjawi was a Lebanese and British citizen who [...]
Republicans Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich campaigned for every last vote Saturday in South Carolina before polls closed in a closely contested high-stakes primary battle that could shape the race to choose a Republican challenger to President Barack Obama. Mr. Romney is fighting a suddenly surging Mr. Gingrich, while rivals Rick Santorum and Ron Paul [...]
Two people named Redford have sharply differing opinions about Barack Obama’s decision to block the contentious Keystone XL oil pipeline, which would have run from Alberta down to Texas. The obscure Redford (Alison, the Premier of Alberta) is “bitterly disappointed,” while the famous Redford (Robert, the Hollywood celebrity) is ecstatic. He calls it “a victory [...]
For Nouriel Roubini, Toronto was a 36-hour touchdown amid flights to India, Hong Kong and Mexico. Then, after a weekend pit stop in Manhattan, he would be off again: two weeks in Europe, appearing in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum, then Milan, London, Berlin, Moscow. Just an ordinary month in the nomadic life [...]
France is suspending all training operations for Afghan troops and threatening to pull its entire force out of Afghanistan early after an Afghan soldier shot and killed four French soldiers Friday. The attack was among the most deadly for French forces in the 10 years they have been serving in the international force in Afghanistan. [...]
The multi-channel trade supplier is celebrating the launch of its 200th store today at Heathrow. It’s a fitting location for Screwfix, which is on track to have 50 stores inside the M25 by the end of January 2012, creating almost 400 jobs in the process. The expansion is hoped to make the brand more accessible [...]
Enlarge MediaFire.com File-sharing sites like MediaFire and RapidShare have tried to distance themselves from Megaupload.com after it was shut down last week for copyright infringement and racketeering. MediaFire.com File-sharing sites like MediaFire and RapidShare have tried to distance themselves from Megaupload.com after it was shut down last week for copyright infringement and racketeering. A week [...]
The boxer played by Mark Wahlberg in The Fighter has been hospitalised following a dog attack. Micky Ward, the athlete whose early career was retold in last year’s Oscar-winning picture, fell victim to a stray while walking his own pet in Massachusetts on Wednesday, according to TMZ. Ward was admitted to a local medical facility [...]
Actos Lawsuit Share Actos Lawsuit News – 1/26/2012: Surgery can be as effective in elderly patients as in younger patients, but it does have a higher rate of postoperative complications in older individuals who have other medical problems (commodities). Elderly people are particularly sensitive to long-term complications, lilce the metabolic disturbances that can follow urinary [...]
Bayern Munich’s Facebook publicity stunt backfired on themselves after failing to deliver on a promised ‘big signing’ via the social website. An announcement on Bayern Munich’s official facebook page announce that the club was going to sign a new offensive player and asked for fans to log on to the page at 2pm CET for [...]
ARM Holdings PLCARMH-Q lacks the brand recognition of some companies that use its technology, but when it comes to designing the brains inside handheld devices, the British company dominates the world. That quiet dominance of the mobile computing market has been a tonic for the microchip maker’s shareholders, keeping the stock growing in a difficult [...]
The Obama administration is announcing plans to lease nearly 38 million acres in the central Gulf of Mexico for offshore oil and gas drilling. It’s part of the push to boost domestic energy supplies that the president outlined in his State of the Union address. President Obama is also promoting American manufacturing and worker-training efforts [...]
Some long days at work can make you question whether anyone works a regular 8-hour shift any more. And as extended work hours become a reality for many of us, research is starting to get a handle on the health trade-offs we’re making. According to a new study, working 11 or more hours a day [...]
Video Image Aussie adventurers take on the ice They’ve already set a world record, now Cas and Jonesy are embarking on a world first expedition across the South Pole / Kate Midena Australians Justin Jones (L), and James Castrission (R), have travelled unaided from the edge of Antarctica to the South Pole and back. Picture: [...]
Ladies and gentlemen, start your engines. The Forbidden Fashion Show roars into the Seattle Art Museum on Saturday, May 21, with sexy swimwear and lingerie strutting a runway designed like a roadway. The James Bond-themed show, titled “Live Another Night,” is in its fourth year, and it’s the only show of its kind in Seattle, [...]