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<p>Iran has dramatically increased the amount of low-enriched uranium produced by its growing number of centrifuges that are part of its nuclear fuel production system.</p>

TORONTO -- A Toronto man has been arrested for allegedly attempting to export nuclear technology to Iran. Mahmoud Yadegari, a Canadian citizen, was to appear in court this morning to face federal customs charges but he may face additional charges for violating a United Nations embargo. Mr. Yadegari attempted to "procure and export" pressure transducers used in the production of enriched uranium, the RCMP said in a statement this morning. He was allegedly purchasing the materials in the United States, and sending it to Dubai but the end destination was Iran, said RCMP Sgt. Marc Laporte. While enriched uranium is...

<p>It turns out we were looking in the wrong place for weapons of mass destruction.</p> <p>They weren't in Iraq.</p> <p>They were in Lehman Brothers' portfolio.</p> <p>The bankrupt investment bank holds as much as 500,000 pounds of uranium yellowcake -- enough to make a nuclear bomb -- it was learned yesterday.</p>

The United States could be set to scrap its demand that Iran stop enriching uranium in the early stages of talks on the Islamic Republic's nuclear program, local media reported Tuesday. The New York Times said US and European diplomats have considered allowing Iran to continue enriching uranium for some period while talks get off the ground, a sharp shift in policy.

TEHRAN, April 9 (Reuters) - Iran is now running 7,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges, a senior official said on Thursday, an announcement likely to increase Western concerns about the Islamic Republic's disputed nuclear plans. Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, also said it had obtained the technology to produce more "accurate" centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium. Referring to the inauguration of a nuclear fuel production plant by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad earlier on Thursday, he said in a televised speech: "Today we praise ... the accomplishment of the last stage of the nuclear fuel cycle."

As a Presidential candidate, Barack Obama called a nuclear Iran "a grave threat" and insisted "the world must prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon." But he also called for direct, high-level talks in the hopes that the mullahs could be persuaded to abandon their nuclear dreams. We've never held out much hope for those talks, which would inevitably be complicated and protracted. Now it turns out that the rate at which Iran's nuclear programs are advancing may render even negotiations moot. That's one conclusion to be drawn from the latest report by the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency. Among...

Agency says radioactive materials recovered in home of man allegedly slain by his wife ...BELFAST, Maine — James G. Cummings, who police say was shot to death by his wife two months ago, allegedly had a cache of radioactive materials in his home suitable for building a “dirty bomb.” According to an FBI field intelligence report from the Washington Regional Threat and Analysis Center posted online by WikiLeaks, an organization that posts leaked documents, an investigation into the case revealed that radioactive materials were removed from Cummings’ home after his shooting death on Dec. 9 It says that four 1-gallon...

A Canadian company has purchased 550 tons of Iraqi uranium concentrate worth $90 milllion. Sakatoon-based uranium producer Cameco Corp., the world's largest producer of uranium, won the contract last year. But although the Iraqi cabinet only approved the sale on Tuesday, the last remains of the country's uranium concentrate or "yellow cake" had already been secretly transported to a Canadian port in July 2008 with US support. Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told AFP on Tuesday that since the country has signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it no longer needs this material accrued by former dictator Saddam Hussein, and the...

ELMENDORF AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska SNIPPET: "Meanwhile, North Korea suggested Monday that it is preparing a rocket launch, saying it has the right to "space development," a term Pyongyang has used in the past to disguise a long-range missile test as a satellite launch, the Associated Press reported."

The US should consider making concessions to Russia on the placement of a missile-defense shield in Europe, in order to get Moscow to back "crippling" concessions against Iran if the time comes, a leading US congressman said Thursday. Howard Berman, the powerful Democratic chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said in an interview that one reason for a limited dialogue with the Iranians to get them to suspend uranium enrichment would be to encourage other countries to "buy into crippling" sanctions if Teheran failed to do so. Berman said the US-Iran talks should be of a set duration, somewhere...

(IsraelNN.com) United Nations investigators have found traces of uranium contamination at the site of an Israeli air strike in Syria, diplomats told Reuters and German media sources on Monday. The report is the first sign of a “smoking gun” proving that Syria was in fact building a secret nuclear reactor on the site, as Israel and the United States have insisted. The diplomats said the traces of uranium were first found in June. What has been found so far is not conclusive evidence of nuclear activity, but “raises questions,” they said. Officials in the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)...

IAEA finds uranium traces at Syrian site: diplomats Mon Nov 10, 2008 7:05pm GMT By Mark Heinrich VIENNA (Reuters) - U.N. investigators have found traces of uranium at a Syrian site Washington says was a secret nuclear reactor almost built before Israel bombed the target last year, diplomats said on Monday. They said the minute uranium particles turned up in some environmental swipe samples U.N. inspectors took at the site in a visit last June. They said the finding was not enough to draw conclusions but raised concerns requiring further clarification. The International Atomic Energy Agency and Syria had no...

The state Coal and Energy Commission is expected to order a study of uranium mining in Virginia. Uranium mining has been banned in Virginia since the 1980s. A company that owns a massive uranium deposit in Pittsylvania estimated to be worth $10 billion has repeatedly asked for a study to see if the element could be mined safely. A legislative committee this winter rejected a scientific study of uranium mining by the National Academy of Sciences amid protests from environmentalists and some Southside residents who feared it would lead to ending the 25-year moratorium. The commission that meets Thursday to...

America seems to be asleep at the wheel once again: Brazil and Iran agree to take relationship to a new level. Iran's foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki said, "Iran affords South America major priority in its foreign policy and Brazil enjoys a special position in this respect.” While Brazil's counterpart, Mr. Amorim, said their meeting was a "turning point" that would lead to a new level of cooperation when the two President's meet in Tehran. Brazil's "special position" is in two areas: oil, and uranium. Brazil's decision to turn down an OPEC invitation in September was good. But with the price...

Since the Saddam Hussein statues were torn down around Iraq, many Israelis have stopped carrying their gas masks despite almost daily exhortations by defense minister Shaul Mofaz to keep them close and not dismantle their sealed rooms since the danger is not over. His concern has draw sneers from some army veterans and pundits, making him the butt of jokes about “overreaction”. Some information about the sinister tools of death that are believed cached in remote al Qaim up against the Syrian border might lead to a better appreciation of the peril. However, Israeli officials are keeping what is known...

MAYBE BUSH IS NOT SUCH A BAD GUY AFTERALL. TOO BAD THE NEWS PEOPLE DON'T TELL THE TRUTH. This has been flying under the radar. Read the MSNBC article and check the truthorfiction.com site. The TorF version is shown below. This event is factual. I have an increased respect for President Bush. He has taken the heat of being called a liar and a war monger for 5 years while he kept his silence to protect the people of the world. This is truly a display of selfless honor. On July 5, 2008, the Associated Press (AP) released a story...

Iran has substantially improved the efficiency of its centrifuges that produce enriched uranium, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday, indicating that the nation has overcome some of the technical challenges that had plagued its enrichment program. In a six-page report, the agency charged the Iranians with continuing to stonewall about what some Western governments suspected was Iran's past research on designing a nuclear weapon. The agency acknowledged that it had failed "to make any substantial progress" in its investigation. "We seem to be at a dead end," said a senior official with links to the agency. "We would describe...

Report shows items misidentified, oven temperature too high - OAK RIDGE - A federal spokesman confirmed that Oak Ridge workers overcooked some nuclear warhead components during a drying process to such an extent that the parts could no longer be "used as intended." Beyond that, the government isn't saying much.The incident at the Y-12 National Security Complex was revealed in a June 20 report by staff of the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.The timing was about a month after the Oak Ridge plant received approval to restart production work on W76 warheads, which had been delayed for more than a...

Amid the rolling hills and verdant pastures of south central Virginia an unlikely new front in the battle over nuclear energy is opening up. How it is decided will tell us a lot about whether this country is willing to get serious about addressing its energy needs. In Pittsylvania County, just north of the North Carolina border, the largest undeveloped uranium deposit in the United States -- and the seventh largest in the world, according to industry monitor UX Consulting -- sits on land owned by neighbors Henry Bowen and Walter Coles. Large uranium deposits close to the surface are...

via translation - ALERT - Nuclear: Iran has 5,000 to 6,000 centrifuges TEHRAN - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday that Iran had 5,000 to 6,000 centrifuges for uranium enrichment activities, confirming that the Islamic Republic has expanded its controversial nuclear programme, reported state radio.

Ayatollah Khomeini's heirs are breathing new life into the Islamic revolution in the hope of transforming Iran into a regional power. The Iranian revolution can only point to a single achievement in the Arab world: Hizbullah and its leader Hassan Nasrallah are keeping revolutionary fervor alive in Lebanon. This base of exported revolution is central to Iran's political-diplomatic efforts to achieve a higher status in the region and in the world. Two additional foundations of Iranian power must be added: * The Iranian nuclear program, complete with delivery systems capable of reaching targets in the Middle East and Europe. *...

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Operational Brimstone, starting Monday, July 21, aimed at giving military teeth to the two-week ultimatum the six world powers gave Iran in Geneva Saturday to accept the suspension of uranium enrichment or face harsh sanctions and isolation. The penalty of withholding refined oil products from Iran would be exercised by means of a partial international naval blockade of its Gulf ports. Taking part in the 10-day exercise in the Atlantic Ocean are more than a dozen ships, including the US carrier strike group Theodore Roosevelt and expeditionary strike group Iwo Jima; the French submarine Amethyste,...

Iran was given a fortnight to agree to freeze its uranium enrichment programme yesterday or face further international isolation. After a day of inconclusive talks in Geneva, a six-nation negotiating team warned the Iranian delegation that it had run out of patience and demanded a 'yes or no' answer to a proposal it put forward five weeks ago.

Does anyone have any information of 500 tons of yellowcake being sent to Canada from Iraq?

Hear about the 550 metric tons of yellowcake uranium found in Iraq? No? Why should you? It doesn't fit the media's neat story line that Saddam Hussein's Iraq posed no nuclear threat when we invaded in 2003.

WASHINGTON, July 7, 2008 – Defense personnel have completed the transfer of 550 metric tons of Iraqi uranium ore to Canada, Defense officials said here today. The Iraqi government asked the United States to help transfer the yellowcake -- as the ore is known -- from Tuwaitha Nuclear Research Center near Baghdad to its buyer in Canada, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said today. The military dubbed the movement Operation McCall, and it ended July 5. DoD’s portion of the operation involved the transfer of the ore. Yellowcake is a uranium ore that can be processed to become nuclear fuel. State...

550 metric tons of yellowcake uranium worth millions of dollars were shipped out of Iraq to Canada. The uranium was transported in 37 military flights in 3,500 secure barrels. Though the yellowcake had been in Iraq for some time and had been discovered by the United Nations inspectors after the first Gulf War in during the Senior President Bush’s presidency the material has finally been removed. This is a fact the Democrats don’t want publicized and the MSM will oblige.

Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

<p>The media have been telling us for years that Saddam had no WMD, so "Bush's War": was based on a "lie." And those who believed Saddam did have WMD or WMD programs were delusional or worse.</p> <p>And multiple devices that could be used in a nuclear weapon.</p>

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Large amounts of uranium may have gone missing from a nuclear technology company in Sweden. The American Central Intelligence Agency fears a worst-case scenario where the material has already fallen into terrorist hands, newspaper Expressen reports. "The company (Ranstad Mineral) is a security risk and we have taken the matter to top level to get the Swedes to stop them," a CIA spokesman told the Swedish newspaper. The CIA operative claims to know that the little Swedish company has educated Syrian nuclear physicists in the treatment of uranium. He also has information that a Swedish consultancy has sold nuclear equipment...

NEW DELHI: Reiterating their total opposition to the India-U.S. civilian nuclear cooperation, the Left parties on Friday said their discussions with the government were still going on. “At the last meeting of the UPA-Left joint committee on the nuclear deal, we were told that there is a shortage of uranium and reactors were working at 50 per cent of their level of production,” Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat told reporters here. The next meeting of the committee on the nuclear deal is scheduled for May 28. “We have not yet completed our discussions with the government...

RIYADH (AFP) - The White House announced major new cooperation agreements with Saudi Arabia on Friday as US President George W. Bush made his second visit to the oil superpower this year. The agreements cover cooperation on civil nuclear power and protecting the kingdom's oil infrastructure which has come under attack by Islamist militants. "The Saudis bear a special responsibility for protecting key energy facilities of global importance and the world benefits from their abundant energy supplies," a White House statement said. "Our global economy depends greatly on Saudi Arabian energy. The United States has a keen interest in helping...

AREVA, a French-based company, has chosen Bonneville County, Idaho, as the site for its first U.S. uranium enrichment facility. "While we had several attractive sites to choose from, we opted for Idaho Falls, which has strong ties to nuclear energy, and which welcomed AREVA and its proposed enrichment facility to become a new member of its community," said Michael McMurphy, President of Areva Inc. "We look forward to a productive and long-term partnership that will deliver diversity and strength to the regional economy." The $2 billion plant will be built 18 miles west of Idaho Falls, close to the Idaho...

Enlarge ImageYum-yum! It would sicken or kill other organisms, but this mycorrhizal fungus consumes depleted uranium and leaves it in a less mobile form.Credit: Marina Fomina et al. (Current Biology 18) Uranium pollution from high-tech armor and munitions is one of the dangerous legacies of the wars in the Balkans and Iraq. But a naturally occurring fungus might help combat the spread of that pollution into local ecosystems. The fungus transforms the uranium into a stable form that shouldn't work its way into the food chain, a new study shows. The findings potentially could help engineers isolate the toxic...

With minimal public notice and no formal environmental review, the Forest Service has approved a permit allowing a British mining company to explore for uranium just outside Grand Canyon National Park, less than three miles from a popular lookout over the canyon’s southern rim.Mining Claims Near the Grand Canyon********************************* If the exploration finds rich uranium deposits, it could lead to the first mines near the canyon since the price of uranium ore plummeted nearly two decades ago. A sharp increase in uranium prices over the past three years has led individuals to stake thousands of mining claims in the Southwest,...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico - After more than five years, the Pentagon revealed why it is holding a Saudi nicknamed "the Professor" at Guantanamo Bay, saying he once lived with a Sept. 11 conspirator and received a stipend from Osama bin Laden. Shaker Aamer's lawyer denies the allegations, made after British Prime Minister Gordon Brown last week requested the release of the Saudi, who has been an unofficial leader among the detainees, and four other former residents of Britain. The Bush administration, which has been urging other nations to accept Guantanamo prisoners amid international pressure to close the military jail,...

Petraeus: Al Qaida Trying to 'Come Back In' U.S. military officials said there will be no significant reduction in coalition troops in the Baghdad area as part of an effort to stop the Al Qaida offensive in northern Iraq. They said Al Qaida was trying to reenter Baghdad and reverse its losses in 2007. "Al Qaida is trying to come back in," U.S. military commander Gen. David Petraeus said. "We can feel it and see it, and what we're trying to do is rip out any roots before they can get deeply into the ground." Read More Militants Assert...

The United Arab Emirates has approved plans to pursue a nuclear power programme, saying it would invest $100m in an agency that plans to make it the first Arab state to develop atomic energy. The cabinet approved a plan for the formation of the Nuclear Energy Implementation Organisation, which will work alongside the International Atomic Energy Agency – the United Nations watchdog – as it builds nuclear power facilities. The government said it would import uranium, shunning the uranium enrichment process, the most sensitive aspect of a nuclear development programme. The move confirms the intention of the oil-rich federation to...

The appearance of nuclear weapons materials on the black market is a growing global concern, and it is crucial that the United States reinforce its team of nuclear forensics experts and modernize its forensics tools to prepare for or respond to a possible nuclear terrorist attack. Large quantities of nuclear materials are inadequately secured in several countries, including Russia and Pakistan. Since 1993, there have been more than 1,300 incidents of illicit trafficking of nuclear materials, including plutonium and highly enriched uranium, both of which can be used to develop an atomic bomb. And these are only the incidents we...

WINDHOEK (Reuters) - North Korea's number two leader ended a trip to Namibia, a leading uranium producer, on Sunday saying he would strengthen ties with the country. North Korea, under pressure to declare its nuclear programmes, and Namibia said they signed a memorandum of understanding on diplomatic consultations. Kim Yong-nam, president of the presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly, started an African tour on Thursday in Namibia, the world's fifth-largest uranium miner. In a joint statement issued by Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba's office, the countries "expressed satisfaction" that their ties have grown. North Korea watchers said the search for business...

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - A single laptop can reveal much, and so it is with the digital treasure chest that Colombian commandos found in the jungle quarters of slain rebel leader Raul Reyes. Files in the computer seized in Saturday's raid into Ecuador that claimed the lives of Reyes and 23 of his comrades offer an intimate portrait of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's desire to undermine Colombia's U.S.-allied government. If authentic, the documents show that sympathies Chavez first aired publicly in January grew out of a relationship that dates back more than a decade. But Chavez is not one of...

Despite a new round of UN sanctions over its nuclear activities, Iran still thinks it is ahead. "Today the name of Iran means a firm punch in the teeth of the powerful... "The enemies of the nation and bullying powers do not dare to admit that this nation has won in the nuclear field." bomb, then it might find that there would be those, in the US and elsewhere, who would want to turn that victory into defeat.

(CNN) -- Evidence found in computers seized in a raid over the weekend suggests that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez recently gave the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia $300 million, Colombia's national police chief said Monday. Speaking at a news conference, Gen. Oscar Naranjo also said evidence in the computers suggests FARC had given Chavez 100 million pesos when he was a jailed rebel leader. FARC has fought to overthrow the Colombian government for 40 years. Chavez had no immediate response to the allegations involving him. Naranjo said other evidence in the computers suggests FARC purchased 50 kilograms of uranium...

The article is in Spanish, here is my translation; General Oscar Naranjo has presented this afternoon documents and photographs contained in Raul Reyes' computers that prove strong ties between the Venezuelan President and the FARC. They reveal the handing off 300 million US as well as arms. SEE VIDEOS "We, the FARC, will always be on the lookout for the defense of the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela, in case of any 'gringo' agression", says one paragraph in a letter from Marulanda to Chavez. Another communication reveals the destination of a delivery "50 kilos" from an airplane. The General has revealed...

The police on February 18 seized four kg of low-grade uranium and arrested six persons in Supaul district along the Indo-Nepal border. A police official on February 19 said acting on an intelligence tip-off, four kg of low-grade uranium was seized near Virpur bus stand in Supaul late on February 18 night. The estimated value of the seized uranium is about Rs.50 million in the international market. The police said the operation was conducted with the assistance of Seema Suraksha Bal (SSB) personnel. Six persons, including a schoolteacher and a SSB jawan posted in Assam, were arrested. The police suspect...

Iran confirms new nuclear centrifuges By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer Feb 24, 2008 Iran said Sunday that it has started using new centrifuges that can churn out enriched uranium at more than double the rate of the machines that now form the backbone of the Islamic nation's nuclear program. The announcement was the first official confirmation by Tehran after diplomats with the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog reported earlier this month that Iran was using 10 of the new IR-2 centrifuges. "We are (now) running a new generation of centrifuges," the official IRNA news agency quoted Javad Vaidi, deputy of Iran's...

Nuclear Terror: The illusions created by a politicized intelligence report and pacifist wishful thinking don't change the reality of Iran's nuclear ambitions. The Bush administration has just provided expanded evidence.Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton wonders why the publicly released portion of last December's National Intelligence Estimate, contending that Iran ceased its nuclear weapons program in 2003, placed so much emphasis on the building of nuclear warheads. After all, Bolton reasons, that's a small task compared with the years of uranium enrichment that Tehran has steadfastly refused to abandon in the face of U.N. sanctions. "The way...

VIENNA, Austria - Iran's new generation of advanced centrifuges have begun processing small quantities of the gas that can be used to make the fissile core of nuclear warheads, diplomats told The Associated Press on Wednesday.