Iran's president boasted that his country will soon have mastered the production of nuclear fuel, but he added the country was far from producing enough fuel to power its Russian-built reactor. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed the world had finally accepted that Iran has the complete cycle of fuel production -- from mining uranium to enriching it to the level required for consumption in a nuclear power plant.
U.N. experts have found unexplained plutonium and highly enriched uranium traces in a nuclear waste facility in Iran and have asked Tehran for details, a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency said Tuesday. The report also faulted Tehran for not cooperating with the agency's attempts to investigate suspicious aspects of Iran's nuclear program.
Lawyers asked German prosecutors to open a war crimes investigation of Donald Rumsfeld and other U.S. officials Tuesday, citing the outgoing defense secretary's alleged role in the abuse of inmates at Iraq's Abu Gharib prison and Guantanamo Bay. The lawyers, who represented inmates from the detention centers, acknowledged that while there was little chance of seeing Rumsfeld in a German jail, the point was simply to increase the pressure on top brass they say are culpable.
President Bush addressed U.S. auto industry leaders Tuesday, saying he recognized they had "tough choices" to make their companies competitive in a difficult global environment and promising a continuing dialogue between government and industry. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other administration officials met in the Oval Office for just more than an hour with top executives of Ford, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group.
More Americans rank Iraq as the top priority of the new Democratic-controlled Congress, but nearly three out of five say the party does not have a plan to deal with the war, according to the latest Associated Press-Ipsos poll. The poll showed lingering uncertainty about the country's direction and the ability of Democrats and President Bush to work together in the aftermath of an anti-Republican wave.
Hamas insisted it would not recognize Israel even after a unity government takes power in the Palestinian territories, complicating efforts to form a more moderate coalition that would clear the way for vital foreign aid. The group suggested, however, that the coalition would be free to stake out a different position, apparently hoping the ambiguity in its statements will allow it to preserve its anti-Israel ideology but loosen international economic sanctions.
