Iran to step up uranium enrichment

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks during a ceremony to introduce the domestically produced Simorq propulsion system, for rockets to carry satellites into space, during a ceremony in Tehran February 3, 2010

Iran's president on Sunday ordered his atomic agency to significantly enrich the country's stockpile of uranium, angering Western nations who want to the Islamic republic to halt its nuclear program.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad maintained, however, that Iran was also still willing to follow a U.N. plan to export its uranium abroad for further enrichment. Refining uranium produces nuclear fuel for a power plant but if carried out far enough can create material for a weapon.

The mixed messages from Tehran have infuriated the U.S. and its European allies, who claim Iran is only stalling for time as it attempts to build a nuclear weapon. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates called for the international community to pressure Iran into abandoning its nuclear program.

German Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said: "Today's statement shows that farce is being played out just like we have seen in the past, that the outstretched hand of the international community has not only not been taken but pushed back."

By announcing that Iran would enrich the fuel on its own, Ahmadinejad appeared to reject the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency's deal — even though he had seemed to endorse it just days earlier.

Iran wants to enrich its stockpile of uranium to 20 percent, up from 3.5 percent, to power a research reactor to produce medical isotopes. But the international community has demanded a halt to all enrichment activity because the same process is used to produce weapons-grade material.

While material for a nuclear weapon is enriched to a level of 90 percent, just getting its stockpile to the 20 percent mark is a major step for the country's nuclear program.

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Taiwanese military orders German helicopters

Taiwan's US-made F-16 fighter jets release flares during war games

Taiwan's military will buy up to 20 helicopters from a German manufacturer, it was confirmed today, days after Beijing lashed out at a multibillion-dollar US arms deal with the island.

China has yet to respond to news of the agreement, thought to be the first European sale to Taiwan's armed forces since the early 90s.

Taiwan's defense ministry spokesman Martin Yu said the island would buy EC-225 search-and-rescue helicopters. The $111m contract with Eurocopter, a subsidiary of EADS, is for three helicopters, with an option to buy up to 17 more.

The move could fray Sino-European ties, already under strain over trade and currency issues. Yesterday China filed a complaint to the World Trade Organization over the EU's anti-dumping tariffs on shoes.

The arms deal could also affect Beijing's relations with Taipei, which have improved markedly since President Ma Ying-jeou took office on a platform of improving ties two years ago.

However, others believe that China could remain silent or issue only a muted response if it is satisfied that the helicopters are not for military tasks.

The Taiwanese defense ministry said it was not an arms order and the EC-225 is a civilian model. But the Taiwanese armed forces have bought non-military helicopters in the past and customized them with equipment suited to military models.

Defense News, which first reported the sale, said the contract would be signed within a few days.

China's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to questions on the helicopter sale.
Calls to the Taiwan Affairs Office rang unanswered.

China hit back unusually hard following last week's announcement of the US's $6.4bn arms package, which includes Patriot missiles, naval minesweepers and Black Hawk helicopters. It warned of plans to impose sanctions on US firms that sell weapons to Taiwan and said it was "unavoidable" that co-operation on wider issues would be affected.

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13 dead as Pakistan bus, hospital bombed

The wounded from the first attack were being treated at the scene of the second blast

Two bombs exploded in Pakistan’s largest city Friday, one outside a hospital treating casualties from the first attack. At least 12 people were killed and more than 50 wounded.

The first blast targeted a bus carrying Shiite Muslim worshipers, most of them women and children.

Twelve people were killed in the attack, and 49 were injured, officials said.

The second bomb two hours later wounded several more people outside the entrance to the emergency ward at Jinnah Hospital, witness Imran Ahmad said.

Karachi has a history of religious violence and has been tense in recent weeks due to deadly clashes between rival political parties.

In late December, a bomb killed 44 Shiites attending a procession in the city, sparking riots.

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Pakistan Arrests 35 in U.S. Soldier’s Deaths

Dozens of school girls were injured in Wednesday's blast in North-West Frontier Province

Pakistani officials said Thursday they have arrested 35 suspects as part of their investigation into a bombing that killed three American soldiers and four Pakistanis on Wednesday in northwest Pakistan.

“They are all locals,” said the duty officer at the police station in the town of Balambat, where the bombing occurred, in the Lower Dir district.

The police made 30 arrests and five were made by members of the paramilitary Frontier Corps, according to a senior official in the North-West Frontier Province.

“We are questioning them in an effort to trace those who orchestrated the suicide attack,” a police official, Naeem Khan, told The Associated Press. He added that police investigators believe the explosion was caused by a car bomber rather than a roadside bomb with a remote detonator.

Three of the Pakistani victims were schoolgirls, and two American soldiers also were wounded by the blast. The soldiers were part of a Special Operations team that has been training Pakistan’s paramilitary Frontier Corps in counterinsurgency techniques.

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54 killed as suicide bomber targets Shiite pilgrims in Iraq

A female suicide bomber detonated a vest rigged with explosives among a crowd of Shiite Muslim pilgrims Monday in northeast Baghdad, killing 54 people and wounding 109, the latest in a string of attacks that have unnerved the city as pivotal elections loom next month.

The bomber hid the explosives under her voluminous black abaya, or cloak, and detonated them among pilgrims gathered at a hospitality tent in the neighborhood of Bab al Shams. The dead included five women employed to search female pilgrims for bombs, police said.

Taxi driver Ahmad Najem, 30, who witnessed the attack, described seeing a huge fireball erupt from the tent, followed by the wails of the injured.

"I saw the bodies of women and children, and bags and slippers strewn all around in pools of blood," said Najem, who joined in helping evacuate people.

The pilgrims were among hundreds of thousands walking to the shrine city of Karbala to mark Arbaeen, the end of a 40-day mourning period for Imam Hussein, a 7th century figure revered by Shiites. Traditionally, residents set up hospitality tents to serve refreshments to the pilgrims.

Such public displays of Shiite religiosity were banned during Saddam Hussein's rule. Since his fall from power in 2003, millions have been making the journey on foot to the Karbala shrine. Just as regularly, insurgents have attacked them along the way, and Monday's bombing echoed one a year earlier in which a suicide attacker killed 40 pilgrims, at a hospitality tent.

But a recent pilgrimage had gone off almost without incident, drawing boasts from the government that the security forces were in full control.

Monday's bombing was the bloodiest of the year, and was the fifth suicide attack in Baghdad in a week. It coincided with widespread fear that insurgent groups are gearing up for a major onslaught in the weeks before the March 7 national elections.

A dramatic deterioration in security could affect the withdrawal of most U.S. troops from Iraq, set to take place by the end of August.

American commanders have said they intend to assess things after the elections and decide whether to send home an estimated 65,000 combat troops, leaving a force of about 50,000 in Iraq.

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