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Jolie Rouge
06-21-2006, 09:51 PM
Europe Backs Bush on Growing Nuke Crises
By TERENCE HUNT

VIENNA, Austria (AP) - President Bush won solid European support Wednesday for his handling of escalating nuclear crises with North Korea and Iran but was challenged over the Iraq war, the U.S. prison camp in Cuba and rising anti-American sentiment.

``That's absurd,'' Bush snapped at a news conference in response to an assertion that the United States was regarded as the biggest threat to global security. ``We'll defend ourselves, but at the same time we're actively working with our partners to spread peace and democracy.

Unbidden, Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel rose with an impassioned defense that seemed to surprise the president.

``I think it's grotesque to say that America is a threat to the peace in the world compared with North Korea, Iran, a lot of countries,'' Schuessel said. Europe would not enjoy peace and prosperity if not for U.S. help after World War II, he said. ``We should be fair from the other side of the Atlantic,'' Schuessel said. ``We should understand what September 11th meant to the American people.''

But the chancellor also prodded Bush. ``We can only have a victory in the fight against terror if we don't undermine our common values,'' Schuessel said. ``It can never be a victory, a credible victory over terrorists if we give up our values: democracy, rule of law, individual rights.''

Bush came here for the annual summit of the United States and the 25-nation European Union at a time when favorable opinions of the U.S. have fallen across Europe.


Bush readily acknowledged summit disputes. ``We disagreed in an agreeable way on certain issues,'' the president said. Bush also chatted with foreign students at a round-table, toured the national library and listened to the Vienna Boys Choir before arriving in Budapest, Hungary to spend the night.

The president won backing for the demand that North Korea abandon plans to test-fire a long-range missile. ``It should make people nervous when non-transparent regimes that have announced that they've got nuclear warheads fire missiles,'' he said.

Bush said he was glad China had joined in urging North Korea not to test, and said he had talked with the leaders of Russia and Japan to enlist their help, as well. ``If this (test) happens, there will be a strong statement and a strong answer from the international community,'' said Schuessel, who holds the EU's rotating presidency. ``And Europe will be part of it. There's no doubt.''

There was solidarity, too, in pressing Iran to accept a two-week-old offer of incentives in return for a moratorium on uranium enrichment, a process that can produce material for nuclear generators or for weapons. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday that Tehran will respond in mid-August. ``It seems like an awful long time for a reasonable answer ... It shouldn't take the Iranians that long to analyze what is a reasonable deal,'' the president said.

Schuessel agreed. ``The time is limited,'' he said. ``And I think we should not play with time. ... It's not only time, it's the right moment.''

Within an hour of Iran's remarks, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and diplomats from the other five nations offering the Iran incentives had agreed by phone to stick to a deadline of next week for an answer, a U.S. official said.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the diplomats' discussions were confidential, said the six nations expect an answer near the time of a meeting of foreign ministers from Group of Eight nations June 29 in Moscow. If Iran does not reply, that meeting would probably become a springboard toward action against Iran in the U.N. Security Council, the official said.

Anticipating a subject of high concern in Europe, Bush raised the detention of about 460 terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The recent suicides of three inmates have intensified international condemnation of the facility and demands for it to be closed. ``I understand their concerns,'' Bush said. ``I'd like to end Guantanamo. I'd like it to be over with.

Bush said 200 detainees had been sent home, and that most of the remaining prisoners are from Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Afghanistan. ``There are some who need to be tried in U.S. courts,'' Bush said. ``They're cold-blooded killers. They will murder somebody if they're let out on the street.'' He said he was waiting for the Supreme Court to decide how they should be tried.

Schuessel welcomed Bush's statement. ``We got clear, clear signals and a commitment from the American side - no torture, no extraordinary or extraterritorial positions to deal with the terrorists,'' he said. ``All the legal rights must be preserved.''



Associated Press writers Austin H.M. Childs in Vienna and Anne Gearan in Washington contributed to this report.

06/21/06 20:28


http://cnn.netscape.cnn.com/news/story.jsp?floc=ne-story-9-l3&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20060621%2F2028835941.htm&sc=1103

Jolie Rouge
01-04-2007, 10:33 PM
Activity spotted at North Korea nuclear test site [/b]
By Jack Kim
1 hour, 28 minutes ago

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean officials said on Friday that activity has been spotted near a suspected nuclear test site in North Korea but there is no evidence to suggest Pyongyang is about to test another atomic device.

ABC News earlier quoted a U.S. defense official as saying that North Korea appeared to have made preparations for a second nuclear test. Its first, on October 9 last year, drew worldwide condemnation and punitive U.N. sanctions. "We think they've put everything in place to conduct a test without any notice or warning," the U.S. television network quoted the official as saying.

In response, a U.S. official said he had no reason to believe North Korea was preparing for a test -- and there was in fact considerable uncertainty within the U.S. government about whether Pyongyang had any intent to conduct one.

The United States monitors North Korea by satellite and by spyplanes that fly along the fringes of the reclusive communist state's airspace for suspicious movements. "Certain activities have been detected near a suspected North Korean nuclear test site but currently there are no specific indications related to an additional test," said a South Korean source familiar with the North's nuclear program.

The source asked not to be named and declined to explain how the latest movements were spotted.

Another government official in Seoul said vehicle and personnel movement had been spotted near the site of the North's first test, Yonhap news agency reported.

That official said there were no signs of cables being laid or electronic monitors being installed, which might indicate a test was imminent.

AUSPICIOUS EVENT FOR NATION

The ABC report said intelligence was inconclusive, but the preparations in hand were similar to steps taken by North Korea before its October 9 test. Many analysts say that first test was not fully successful.

The two Koreas, the United States, Japan, Russia and China failed in their latest round of talks in Beijing last month to make any progress in suspending the North's nuclear programs in exchange for aid and pledges not to attack it.

North Korea was rebuffed at those talks in its insistence that it be treated as a nuclear power.

South Korea's Defense Ministry said last week that North Korea has probably extracted more than 50 kg (110 lb.) of plutonium since 1994, with more than 30 kg obtained since 2003 while it was engaged in the six-country negotiations.

North Korea hailed its nuclear test as "an auspicious event for the nation" in editorials in official media to welcome the New Year, adding it would further boost its military strength.

"The DPRK's (North Korea's) nuclear deterrent serves as a powerful force for defending peace and security in Northeast Asia and guaranteeing the victorious advance of the cause of independence," one editorial said.

(Additional reporting by David Morgan, Arshad Mohammed and Paul Eckert in Washington and Kim Yeon-hee in Seoul)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070105/ts_nm/korea_north_test_dc

Jolie Rouge
05-15-2007, 08:53 PM
Iran not complying with U.N. demands
By WILLIAM J. KOLE, Associated Press Writer
Tue May 15, 6:38 PM ET

VIENNA, Austria - Iran persists in its brazen defiance of U.N. Security Council demands that it halt uranium enrichment, the chief U.S. nuclear envoy warned Tuesday ahead of a fresh assessment that could lead to tougher sanctions against Tehran.

Gregory L. Schulte said Washington "would welcome a report verifying that Iran has suspended its enrichment-related activities" when the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, delivers its latest update by early next week. "Unfortunately, I don't foresee such a report," Schulte said in a speech at the University of Vienna, calling Iran "a blatant case of noncompliance" with the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

Agency inspectors who visited Iran's main nuclear facility at Natanz on short notice Sunday found evidence to suggest that it may have overcome technological challenges and has started enriching uranium on a significantly wider scale, The New York Times reported Tuesday.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei is now arguing that diplomatic efforts to get Iran to suspend enrichment may no longer make sense if the Islamic republic has the technical ability to enrich on a large scale, a diplomat familiar with the inspection process told The Associated Press. "What he's saying is that we've now crossed a line," said the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with reporters.

But Schulte said the international community would continue insisting on suspension to contain what he called "activities that really only make sense in the context of a military program."

"Iran continues to defy Security Council demands and shows no sign of planning to comply," he said. "Iran's leadership is actively and defiantly pursuing the technology, material and know-how to produce nuclear weapons."

Iran insists its nuclear program is purely peaceful and geared solely toward producing electricity. The U.S. contends it is covertly trying to build nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, a former U.N. inspector said Tuesday that Iran is making "slow but steady" progress in its efforts to enrich uranium, but probably still wouldn't have enough fuel for a single nuclear warhead until 2009 at the earliest.

David Albright, who now heads the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security, said Iran still must overcome some tricky obstacles if it intends to enrich uranium to weapons grade — and it may take tougher sanctions to stop it. "Iran's been making slow but steady progress," he told the AP in a telephone interview. "We think Iran has been moving faster than (the U.S. government) has anticipated."

Tehran could have 3,000 centrifuges installed by the end of June at Natanz, although it would need several months more to learn how to operate them, Albright said.

He cautioned against concluding that Iran is on the verge of producing an atomic weapon, saying 2009 is the "worst-case scenario" for it to have developed a single warhead. "Our own assessment has been that they've learned to operate a centrifuge over the last six months. What they haven't done is shown that they know how to operate 1,000 centrifuges," he said.

Centrifuges, which spin at high speeds to make nuclear fuel, are tricky to operate and are subject to breakdown, Albright added, contending Iran "isn't out of the woods yet."

Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, has agreed to meet European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana on May 31 to discuss the deadlock over the U.N. demands that Tehran freeze enrichment, Iran's state news agency reported Tuesday.

Abandoning the drive to persuade Tehran to suspend its enrichment activities doesn't make sense, said Albright, who contends the U.S. and its allies would lose their "moral high ground" if they ease up.

"Iran is steadily moving toward nuclear weapons capability, and the negotiations are not working, and we may have to settle into an extended crisis where we need to sanction Iran and further isolate them," he said. "But this doesn't mean war. ... You have to resist the urge to strike out militarily, which could even be worse than Iran gaining nuclear weaponry," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070515/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iran_nuclear;_ylt=AtFmBm_FpWTD6l9VnOkpZuq9IxIF

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On the Net: International Atomic Energy Agency: http://www.iaea.org




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