Free Republic

Excerpt - Vienna, 21 August (AKI) - Just hours before Iran is due to give world powers its response to a package of incentives aimed at persuading the country to give up its nuclear activities, new centrifuges have been installed at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility over the past two weeks, an anonymous source at the United Nations nuclear watchdog told Adnkronos International (AKI). Meanwhile, the country's heavy water reactor at nearby Arak in central Iran "will shortly be operational," the second in command of Iran's nuclear programme, Mohammad Saidi, was quoted as saying. Also on Monday, inspectors from the...

Saudi intelligence chief targeted by terrorists By Robin Gedye (Filed: 01/01/2004) Three people have been arrested in connection with an attempt to kill a senior Saudi Arabian intelligence officer. The Brigade of the Two Holy Mosques, a radical Islamic group linked to al-Qa'eda, posted a statement on several Islamist websites giving warning that the attack was part of a plan to kill "the infidel imams and soldiers of tyranny". Lt Col Ibrahim al-Dhaleh, a senior member of the Mabahith, the Saudi equivalent of the FBI, escaped unharmed on Monday when a bomb was thrown from a moving car into his...