Ex-nuke chief says Iran has 18,000 centrifuges
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s outgoing nuclear chief says Tehran has a total of 18,000 centrifuges for uranium enrichment – a process that can be a pathway to making nuclear weapons. The number is higher by a third than publicly known.
Fereidoun Abbasi’s announcement came as he handed over his post Saturday to Ali Akbar Salehi, appointed by new President Hasan Rouhani.
Abbasi says 10,000 centrifuges currently operating are of an older model, IR-1, while about 7,000 more of the same model are ready to be installed along with just over 1,000 centrifuges of an advanced new model.
The U.S. and its allies fear Iran is seeking to produce nuclear weapons. Tehran says its nuclear program is peaceful.
Rouhani has pledged to follow a policy of moderation and ease tensions with the outside world.
Sunni leader: Lebanon being dragged into war
BEIRUT – One of Lebanon’s most powerful Sunni politicians accused the leader of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah on Saturday of dragging the country further into neighboring Syria’s civil war.
Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s comments come two days after a deadly car bombing struck a Hezbollah neighborhood south of Beirut. Many people in Lebanon viewed the blast as retaliation for Hezbollah’s armed support for Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime.
In a speech on Thursday, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah blamed Sunni extremists for the bombing and defiantly said he was prepared to double the number of his fighters in Syria if the bombing turns out to be linked to his group’s intervention there.
Hariri responded Saturday, saying Nasrallah’s address “did not break the cycle of tension” in the country but rather “drags Lebanon further into the Syrian fire, and it is a pity to squander the blood of Lebanese in such a way.”
In comments posted on his Twitter account and confirmed by his office, Hariri also said that Thursday’s bombing, which killed nearly two dozen people in the Hezbollah stronghold of Rweiss, was “surely an ugly crime, but Hezbollah’s war in Syria is a crime as well.”
Iraq premier warns of smuggled weapons
BAGHDAD – Iraq’s prime minister warned Saturday that weapons and fighters flowing into Syria are now making their way to Iraq, as a rising tide of violence sweeps across the country.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said that weapons provided by some countries to the Syrian rebels and foreign fighters attempting to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, are now ending up in Iraq.
“The weapons provided to those killers in Syria have been smuggled to Iraq and those wolves that came from different countries to Syria are now sneaking into Iraq,” he said during a youth gathering.
Al-Maliki said that this movement of weapons and fighters is adding to the violence hitting his country.
Iraq officially remains neutral in the Syrian conflict. The Shiite-led government in Baghdad has repeatedly called for a peaceful, political solution to the crisis, though it has also warned that a victory for the rebels would unleash sectarian war in Iraq and Lebanon.
Canada allows failed railway to operate
OTTAWA – A Canadian government agency has determined that the U.S. rail company whose runaway train crashed into a small Quebec town, killing 47 people last month, has adequate insurance to keep operating for the next month and a half.
The Canadian Transportation Agency said the Montreal, Maine & Atlantic Railway provided evidence it had adequate third-party liability insurance coverage to operate from Aug. 20 to Oct. 1, 2013. The agency’s decision late Friday reversed an Aug. 13 order that would have halted the railroad’s operations from early next week.
The agency said the rail company provided new facts and information demonstrating it had adequate third-party liability insurance for the short term. However, agency spokeswoman Jacqueline Bannister said Montreal, Maine & Atlantic must show it has the funds to pay the self-insured portion of its operations, or the regulator will suspend its operations from Aug. 23.
Phone magnate calls for more equal Africa
JOHANNESBURG – South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world and more needs to be done here and in Africa to follow the example set by former President Nelson Mandela to build bridges, the founder of an organization that recognizes excellence in African leadership said Saturday.
Mo Ibrahim, a British mobile phone magnate who was born in Sudan, spoke of the need to build better social cohesion in Africa while giving the 11th Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture in South Africa’s capital, Pretoria, on Saturday.
Ibrahim said Africa’s youths are being neglected through poor education, women are still being treated unequally and trade across the continent needs to be built up.
“Young people are without jobs, and more importantly without hope,” he said. Half of the African population is under 19 years old, which can be a positive for the future of the continent compared to others like Europe, or countries like China where the demography is the inverse, he said.
Associated Press
