Posts Tagged ‘Middle East’

Iran rejects key part of nuclear deal

Iran will not send its partially enriched uranium abroad to be turned into material for medical research, its foreign minister said Wednesday, rejecting a key plank of a deal designed to ease international fears that Tehran aims to build nuclear weapons.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran might allow its nuclear material to be reprocessed inside Iran, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported.

The deal hammered out last month with the help of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog agency aimed to reduce the amount of raw material Iran has to build a nuclear bomb.

Tehran denies that it wants to do so, saying its nuclear program is to produce civilian nuclear energy and do medical work.

Pakistan rocked by new suicide attacks, 17 police injured

CNN News:

A suicide bomber killed at least 35 people Monday by detonating explosives outside a bank where people had lined up to pick up their monthly checks, police said.

pakistan explosionThe blast, in the Cannt area of the city, also wounded more than 65 others, said Imdad Ullah Bosal, a district coordination officer. Two women were among the dead, he said.

Meanwhile, another suicide bomber detonated his explosives at a police checkpoint in Lahore hours after the Rawalpindi attack,  police said.

The bombers, believed to be wearing suicide vests, blew themselves up as police inspected their vehicle at the Babu Sabu checkpoint, according to Lahore police chief Pervez Rethore. The blast injured at least 17 police and civilians, a local rescue services spokesman said. At least three people sustained serious injuries, Rethore said.

Afghan election talks failure

CNN News: Talks between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his election opponent, Abdullah Abdullah, have broken down, a Western source close to the Afghan leadership told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Friday.

According to the source, Abdullah will likely announce this weekend that he will boycott the runoff presidential election slated for November 7, a runoff that had been scheduled after intense diplomatic arm twisting by the United States.

In a Thursday interview with Amanpour, former U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad had predicted that the country would soon be governed under a power-sharing deal.

News sources

8 More U.S. soldiers killed in Afghanistan

CNN News: The U.S. military suffered another day of heavy losses in Afghanistan on Tuesday as roadside bombs killed eight soldiers.

An Afghan civilian working with NATO troops also was killed in the attacks in southern Afghanistan, the military said. The officials said that, according to initial reports, one blast took place just outside Kandahar and the other was in neighboring Zabul province.

Seven of the soldiers who died were traveling together in one vehicle, said Sgt. Jerome Baysmore with the International Security Assistance Force Joint Command.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs issued a statement of condolence: “As always our prayers go out to those who have lost a loved one and for those who sacrificed so much to serve our country.”

Read from cnn news

Taliban Attacked U.S. Chopper Killed 10 Soldiers

CBS NEWS:

10 Americans including three DEA agents were killed in a Taliban attacking. As report, a U.S. military helicopter crashed Monday while returning from the scene of a firefight  in western Afghanistan.

Another 4 troops were killed when two helicopters collided over southern Afghanistan.

Details here: 14 Americans Soldiers killed in Afghanistan

“We don’t believe that either one of them were due to enemy fire or hostile intent we are still investigating the cause of it,” Col. Wayne Shanks said to media.

Taliban commander’s claim that the helicopter was hit with heavy machine gun fire and a rocket propelled grenade while it was low to the ground seems to be consistent with what happened.

More details here

14 Americans Soldiers killed in Afghanistan

CNN NEWS: 14 Americans Soldiers died in a copter collisions in Afghanistan on Monday. And in this crash, a helicopter went down in the country’s west.

Enemy action was not suspected in the crash, the U.S. military said.

copter collisions“The incident is currently being investigated, but it is confirmed that hostile fire was not involved,” ISAF said in an earlier news release.

A recovery operation was launched.

Read more here