. Medical and Hospital News .




.
NUKEWARS
Iran summit stumbles on nuclear, Syria criticism
by Staff Writers
Tehran (AFP) Aug 30, 2012

US warns Iran after IAEA nuclear report
Washington (AFP) Aug 30, 2012 - The United States warned Iran on Thursday its window for opening serious talks is limited, after the UN nuclear watchdog said Iran had doubled enrichment capacity at its underground facility at Fordo.

White House spokesman Jay Carney also reiterated that President Barack Obama is determined to prevent Iran getting a nuclear bomb but added that US officials would know whether it reached breakout capacity to reach that stage.

"The window of opportunity to resolve this remains open ... but it will not remain open indefinitely," Carney said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said in its latest quarterly report, seen by AFP but not published, that Iran now has now installed at Fordo around 2,000 uranium-enrichment centrifuges, compared with around 1,000 in May.

It also said its ability to inspect the Parchin military base where it suspects nuclear weapons research took place in the past had been "significantly hampered" by a suspected clean-up.

The report was published at a point when talks between world powers and Iran on its nuclear program are effectively stalled and with rising speculation that Israel may launch a unilateral military strike on Iranian facilities.

US probes Chinese banks on Iran business: report
Washington (AFP) Aug 30, 2012 - US justice authorities are broadly probing Chinese banks over their business with Iran, The New York Times reported Thursday, after one Chinese bank was hit with sanctions in late July.

The authorities have extended investigations of British banks HSBC and Standard Chartered to search for information on Chinese banks' relationships with Iran that might have violated US sanctions, the Times said.

The probes involve the US Justice Department and the Manhattan, New York district attorney's office, and remain at an informal level.

But they come after both of the British banks have been hit with hefty fines in the United States for handling money transfers and other business that crossed US sanctions.

Earlier this month Standard Chartered settled extensive sanctions violation allegations with New York state's Financial Services Department, agreeing to pay a $340 million fine.

Federal officials are still investigating the bank on the same accusations.

Both banks have extensive Asia and Middle East networks and both have deep links with China's financial system.

"Prosecutors hope that the banks' executives, as part of settlements, will shed more light on Chinese banks' independent relationships with Iran," the Times said.

But US prosecutors do not yet have enough information to launch formal investigations, it added.

The main concern is that suspect Iran firms may tap Chinese banks to help transfer money to them that could be routed through US units of the Chinese banks.

Investigations into sanctions violations by other major global banks, including ABN-Amro, Barclays, Credit Suisse, Lloyds and ING, "yielded valuable information about Chinese banks' relationships with Iran," the Times said, citing US law enforcement officials.

On July 31 Washington imposed official sanctions on the Bank of Kunlun, which is controlled by the state-owned energy giant China National Petroleum Corp.

The US Treasury said the bank "has provided significant financial services to more than six Iranian banks that were designated by the United States in connection with Iran's weapons of mass destruction programs or its support for international terrorism."

A furious Beijing said the US move on Kunlun Bank was groundless and "seriously violates the norms of international relations and damages China's interests."


A showpiece summit hosted by Iran stumbled as soon as it opened on Thursday when the head of the UN pressed Tehran on its nuclear stand, and Egypt's new leader publicly sided with Syria's opposition.

The double challenge, before the leaders and delegates of the 120-member Non-Aligned Movement, upset Iran's plans to portray the two-day gathering as a diplomatic triumph over Western efforts to isolate it.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei opened the summit with a speech blasting the United States as a hegemonic meddler and Israel as a regime of "Zionist wolves."

He also said Iran "is never seeking nuclear weapons" and accused the UN Security Council, under US influence, of exerting an "overt dictatorship" over the world.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon, who looked irritated at Khamenei's remarks, shot back that Iran should boost global confidence in its nuclear activities by "fully complying with the relevant Security Council resolutions and thoroughly cooperating with the IAEA," the UN's nuclear watchdog.

Ban warned about bellicose rhetoric from Israel and Iran, saying "a war of words can quickly spiral into a war of violence."

President Mohamed Morsi -- making the first visit to Iran by an Egyptian head of state since the 1979 Islamic revolution -- in turn embarrassed his hosts by voicing support for the Syrian opposition, which is fighting the Damascus regime unwaveringly backed by Iran.

"The revolution in Egypt is the cornerstone for the Arab Spring, which started days after Tunisia and then it was followed by Libya and Yemen and now the revolution in Syria against its oppressive regime," Morsi said.

That contradicted the line put out by Damascus and Tehran, which assert that the Syrian uprising is a "terrorist" plot masterminded by the United States and regional countries.

Morsi's address sparked a walkout by the Damascus delegation and drew a sharp response from Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, who accused him of inciting further bloodshed in Syria.

Iran's state media failed to mention the contentious parts of the speeches by Ban and Morsi in their coverage, but did later report Khamenei as rejecting "all foreign intervention in Syria."

Khamenei was reported at saying at a meeting with Lebanon's President Michel Sleiman that "the only way to solve the Syrian question is to stop sending weapons to irresponsible groups" in the country.

Tehran accuses certain Western states plus Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey of supplying the Syrian rebels with arms.

Morsi reportedly had a short one-on-one with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad before leaving Tehran, at which they discussed Syria and the possibility of reviving ties.

--- Iran nuclear activity under UN scrutiny ---

-----------------------------------------------

The summit to-and-fro over Iran's nuclear ambitions had its roots in an unusually frank meeting Ban held with Khamenei and Ahmadinejad after arriving on Wednesday.

He told them Iran needed to provide "concrete" steps to ease the international showdown which has raised the spectre of air strikes on nuclear facilities, threatened by both Israel and the United States.

Tensions have been raised by the IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, unveiling a new Iran "task force" to scrutinise Tehran's nuclear programme and its compliance with UN resolutions.

The latest IAEA report on Iran circulated to IAEA members and seen by AFP but not yet published said Tehran has doubled its capacity at a tough-to-bomb Fordo nuclear facility to 2,000 uranium-enrichment centrifuges from 1,000 in May.

It also said that its ability to inspect the Parchin military base, outside Tehran, where it suspects nuclear weapons research took place had been "significantly hampered" by a suspected clean-up.

The IAEA said it was still "unable to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities."

Washington warned Tehran its window for opening serious talks is limited.

"The window of opportunity to resolve this remains open... but it will not remain open indefinitely," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

Ban, whose presence at the summit has been criticised by the United States and Israel, also took Iran's leaders to task for recent comments calling Israel a "cancerous tumour" that should be cut out of the Middle East.

He urged both Iran and Israel to cool the bellicose language.

"I strongly reject any threat by any (UN) member state to destroy another, or outrageous comments to deny historical facts such as the Holocaust," Ban said in his summit speech.

"I urge all the parties to stop provocative and inflammatory threats. A war of words can quickly spiral into war of violence. Bluster can so easily become bloodshed. Now is the time for all the leaders to use their voices to lower, not raise, tensions."

Related Links
Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com
Learn about missile defense at SpaceWar.com
All about missiles at SpaceWar.com
Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com




.
.
Get Our Free Newsletters Via Email
...
Buy Advertising Editorial Enquiries


Iran starts NAM summit under sharper UN nuclear scrutiny
Tehran (AFP) Aug 30, 2012 - Iran on Thursday lifted the curtain on a summit of non-aligned states it presented as a diplomatic triumph, but the event was held under the cloud of intensified UN scrutiny of the Islamic republic's nuclear programme.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon, in Tehran, spent the eve of the summit telling Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad they needed to provide "concrete" steps to ease the showdown over their country's disputed atomic activities.

Meanwhile, the International Atomic Energy Agency has unveiled the creation of a special Iran "task force" to scrutinise Tehran's nuclear programme and its compliance with UN resolutions -- including those demanding a suspension of uranium enrichment.

Additionally, the latest IAEA report on Iran's nuclear progress was expected to be released within days -- possibly even in the middle of the Tehran summit, according to some sources at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna.

The report is said to highlight expanded enrichment in Iran and suspicions concerning an off-limits military base in Parchin, outside Tehran, where warhead design experiments might have taken place.

Iran, which insists its nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful, was focused on presenting the summit of the 120-member Non-Aligned Movement in Tehran as proof that Western attempts to isolate it had been in vain.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gave a speech opening the event in a heavily secured northern Tehran conference centre.

"We have gathered here today to inject a new life and stimulus into the Non-Aligned Movement," he said.

He was to be followed by Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi who was making a landmark visit to Iran -- the first by an Egyptian leader since diplomatic ties were broken off in the wake of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution -- to hand over the rotating NAM presidency to the Islamic republic.

A total of 29 heads of state or government attended the opening, including those of Afghanistan, India, Iraq, Lebanon, Pakistan, the Palestinian Authority, Sudan, Qatar and Zimbabwe. North Korea was represented by its ceremonial head of state, parliamentary president Kim Yong-Nam, rather than the country's leader Kim Jong-Un.

The other three quarters of the NAM members were represented by senior officials: vice presidents, deputy prime ministers, foreign ministers and envoys.

The two-day forum, bringing together much of the developing world, was expected to renew its efforts to dilute the power of the UN Security Council's permanent members and uphold calls for a Palestinian state.

It was also likely to slam Western sanctions imposed on Iran and a handful of other NAM states -- Cuba, North Korea, Syria and Zimbabwe -- and underline the right of all countries to supervised, peaceful nuclear energy, according to draft documents.

In his pre-summit meeting with Khamenei, the UN leader called for "concrete steps to address the concerns of the International Atomic Energy Agency and to prove to the world that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes," according to his spokesman.

Khamenei, according to his official website, shot back by telling Ban that the "defective" United Nations was in thrall to the United States, and accusing the UN nuclear watchdog of "sabotaging" Iran's nuclear progress.

The two also discussed the role Iran could play in quelling the violence raging in Syria, whose regime it staunchly supports.

Tehran accuses the United States, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar of sustaining the armed revolt in Syria. In return, the United States and the Syrian opposition claim Iran is sending arms and troops to Syria.



.

. Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle



NUKEWARS
UN, Iran leaders duel over nuclear issue
Tehran (AFP) Aug 29, 2012
UN chief Ban Ki-moon and Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sparred in an unusually frank verbal duel on Wednesday over Tehran's disputed nuclear programme, betraying high tensions on the issue. Ban told Khamenei and, separately, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to take "concrete" steps to fix the worsening international showdown over their atomic activities, according to his spokes ... read more


NUKEWARS
Post-Fukushima meeting calls for more work on nuclear safety

Romney off-message in storm-ravaged Bayou

Japan conducts national quake drill

Democrats scold Romney for storm tour 'hypocrisy'

NUKEWARS
Robbers nabbed thanks to GPS phone in loot

Fourth Galileo satellite reaches French Guiana launch site

A GPS in Your DNA

Next Galileo satellite reaches French Guiana launch site

NUKEWARS
DNA of ancient human decoded

Electronics, living tissue, merged in lab

Man mistakes son for monkey, shoots him dead

More Clues About Why Chimps and Humans Are Genetically Different

NUKEWARS
Stanford researchers discover the 'anternet'

Why are there so many species of beetles and so few crocodiles?

Chimpanzees create social traditions

Rice, MD Anderson scientists probe mystery of operon evolution

NUKEWARS
Flu is transmitted before symptoms appear

African antimalarial research bears first fruit

Climate change could increase levels of avian influenza in wild birds

Cellphones AIDS tests studied in S.Africa, S.Korea

NUKEWARS
China's Wen says property controls still needed: Xinhua

Hong Kong in bid to limit homebuyers from mainland

Exiled Tibetans urge world leaders to end 'crisis'

China official flees country with funds: report

NUKEWARS
EU-NATO forces free hijacked vessel

Nigeria intensifies search for 4 kidnapped foreigners: navy

Somali pirates release Taiwan fishing boat

ONR Sensor and Software Suite Hunts Down More Than 600 Suspect Boats

NUKEWARS
China's manufacturing slumps in August

Top businessman says impossible to sell 'India story'

Walker's World: The Ides of September

Hong Kong apartment fetches record $61 million


Memory Foam Mattress Review

Newsletters :: SpaceDaily Express :: SpaceWar Express :: TerraDaily Express :: Energy Daily
XML Feeds :: Space News :: Earth News :: War News :: Solar Energy News

.

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2012 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement