Iran’s Ahmadinejad wants to debate Obama at UN
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proposed on Monday a face-to-face debate with President Barack Obama at the United Nations if he is re-elected next month as Iran’s president.
But he balanced the offer with a sharp rebuke to Washington and its allies over Iran’s nuclear program. He reiterated that Iran would never abandon its advances in uranium enrichment in exchange for offers of easing sanctions or other economic incentives.
The nuclear issue “is closed,” he told a news conference.
Iran Dispatches Fleet of Warships to Gulf of Aden
[Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah] Sayyari, who made the remarks while visiting the development projects and installations of the Iranian Navy here in Tehran, described the measure as “unprecedented in the history of the Iranian Navy”, and added, “This important move indicates the country’s high military capability in confronting any kind of foreign threat along the coasts of the country.”
He expressed hope that the Iranian Navy experts and specialists would continue daily progress in all fields of surface and sub-surface and arms technology and production.
World outraged by North Korea’s latest nuke test
SEOUL, South Korea (CNN) — The United Nations Security Council will convene Monday to address North Korea’s second nuclear bomb test, which it conducted in defiance of numerous international warnings.
Pyongyang had threatened to carry out the test unless the U.N. Security Council apologized for imposing sanctions on North Korea after it tested a rocket April 5. In a one-two punch, the secretive communist state also apparently test-fired a short-range missile Monday, the White House said.
France, Germany urge more flexible climate pact
PARIS (Reuters) – France and Germany suggested on Monday that rich nations should collectively guarantee deep cuts in greenhouse gases by 2020 while giving flexibility to laggards such as the United States to catch up later.
France said the idea, floated at talks among 17 top greenhouse gas emitters including China, United States, Russia and India, could help toward a new U.N. climate treaty due to be agreed at a meeting in Copenhagen in December.
Lebanese leaders quiet on Spiegel’s bombshell report
Beirut, Lebanon – A bombshell revelation tying Lebanon’s militant Hezbollah to the assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister has generated a rare consensus among rival political camps less than two weeks before crucial parliamentary elections.
The German news magazine Der Spiegel reported this weekend that the Netherlands-based international tribunal established to trace and judge the killers of Rafik Hariri has uncovered evidence that Hezbollah was responsible for the February 2005 truck bomb assassination.
Tags: Politics
