Iran: U.N. council referral will push nation to nukes
Vienna – A defiant Iran warned the 35 nations on the International Atomic Energy Agency’s board Sunday it will press ahead with full-scale uranium enrichment if they push for United Nations action over suspicions Tehran is seeking nuclear arms.
The comment came as the board prepared to meet today to discuss referring Iran to the U.N. Security Council, but delegates said whatever step the council might take would stop far short of sanctions.
John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Sunday there was an urgent need to confront Iran’s “clear and unrelenting drive” for nuclear weapons.
Iran “must be made aware that if it continues down the path of international isolation, there will be tangible and painful consequences,” Bolton told the conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, an influential pro-Israel lobbying group.
But Iran’s government cautioned that putting the issue before the Security Council would hurt efforts to resolve the dispute diplomatically.
“If Iran’s nuclear dossier is referred to the U.N. Security Council, (large-scale) uranium enrichment will be resumed,” Iran’s top negotiator, Ali Larijani, told reporters in Tehran. “If they want to use force, we will pursue our own path.”
RENO, Nev.
Geologist wins award for asteroid theory
A geologist who proposed the theory that a comet or asteroid smashed into Earth and killed off the dinosaurs is the winner of a top research award.
Walter Alvarez, a geologist at the University of California at Berkeley, is the 19th recipient of the nonprofit Desert Research Institute’s silver medallion and its $20,000 prize.
Alvarez’s nearly two-decade-long investigation produced an uncommon scientific drama of personal tenacity and ingenuity, said Stephen Wells, president of the institute.
“Until the impact theory was finally proven, Dr. Alvarez and his colleagues were regarded as heretics by the ‘old guard’ in the field of geology,” Wells said.
SACRAMENTO, Calif.
Fishing ban weighed for Chinook salmon
Federal regulators are considering an unprecedented ocean- fishing ban on Chinook salmon along 700 miles of California and Oregon coast, threatening to spread distress from beleaguered commercial fleets to family dinner tables.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council will meet this week in Seattle to recommend how the federal government should tackle a problem caused by plummeting commercial salmon stocks on the troubled Klamath River.
Commercial fishermen heaped blame on the Bush administration for managing the river in a way they contend favors farmers, dam operators and timber companies at the expense of fish.
BOSTON
Homeless man kicked, set on fire in park
A homeless man sleeping in a park was attacked early Sunday by two men who kicked him in the stomach and then set him on fire. No arrests were made.
The 30-year-old homeless man said he was awakened by the men kicking him in Langone Park in the city’s North End.
He drifted back to sleep after the assault, but the men returned, drenched him with a flammable liquid and set his legs on fire.
A 911 caller reported flames in the park, and firefighters found the man wrapped in a blanket after he had ripped off some of his burning clothes.
KARACHI, Pakistan
50,000 protest prophet cartoons
Tens of thousands of people massed in Pakistan and Turkey on Sunday to protest cartoons of Islam’s prophet, Muhammad, that have fired anger throughout the Muslim world.
About 50,000 people, many chanting “Hang those who insulted the prophet,” rallied Sunday in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi. The protesters burned the Danish flag, hit an effigy of President Bush with a stick and chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Musharraf.” Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan’s president, welcomed Bush to Pakistan on Saturday.
Hundreds of policemen in riot gear lined the central Karachi road where the rally was held. There was no violence.
In Turkey, about 20,000 protesters chanting anti-Danish slogans gathered in the eastern city of Erzurum, reports said.
SANA, Yemen
2 teens get 5 years for attempt on U.S. envoy
Two Yemeni teenagers convicted of trying to kill the U.S. ambassador in 2003 were sentenced Sunday to five years in prison.
The judge said the two – 17-year-old Hezam Ali Hassan and 18-year-old Khaled Saleh – would be held in “a special prison” because of their ages.
According to an indictment, the two followed the car of then-U.S. Ambassador Edmund Hull in the capital, Sana. Hassan – carrying a pistol and two hand grenades he intended to throw – then climbed the outside wall of a store that Hull had entered. Saleh waited outside with a machine gun.
They were spotted by store guards and apprehended.
BANGKOK, Thailand
Protesters call for premier’s resignation
Tens of thousands of protesters demanding the prime minister’s resignation marched to his office Sunday night after a boisterous rally accusing Thaksin Shinawatra of corruption and abuse of power.
Leaders vowed the crowds would camp out in the streets until Thaksin quit.
No major violence was reported. A large number of police officers rushed to guard the perimeter of Government House, but Thaksin was thought to be in northeastern Thailand.
