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new report by the CIA states that North Korea is continuing to make progress with its nuclear arms program and now has the capability to produce nuclear weapons with a yield of a "couple of kilotons" — or the equivalent of 2,000 tons of TNT. “The North’s nuclear test in May 2009 — apparently more successful than its 2006 test — suggests the North has the capability to produce nuclear weapons with a yield of roughly a couple of kilotons TNT equivalent,” the annual report to Congress for 2009 on arms proliferation states. Additionally, the report said North Korea had...

"Air Force strikes in Gaza" SNIPPET: "IDF retaliates for deadly Qassam attack: Air Force hits several Gaza targets, including metal foundry, smuggling tunnel; Vice PM Shalom says Israel to offer strong response to rocket attack that killed Thai worker Thursday" SNIPPET: "IDF aircraft struck at least four targets in the Gaza Strip on Friday, a day after a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave killed a Thai worker in Israel, Hamas security officials and witnesses said." SNIPPET: "Israel also sent a letter of complaint to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who is due to visit Israel at the weekend,...

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TOKYO -- North Korea provided about 45 tons of "yellowcake" uranium to Syria in September 2007 for production of fuel for an undeclared nuclear reactor, diplomatic and military sources knowledgeable on North Korean issues said Saturday. But the shipment was followed shortly by an Israeli air strike targeting the reactor and the uranium involved is believed to have been transferred to Iran around last summer, according to a Western diplomatic source.

Atomic CSI team fingerprints 1940s 'Joachimsthal' metals EU nuke boffins say that mysterious bits of uranium found last year in a Dutch scrapyard originated in the Nazi nuclear-weapons programme of the 1940s. Forensic nuke scientists at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC) traced two pieces of metal - described as a cube and a plate - back to their exact origins and dates. Apparently both came from ores extracted at the "Joachimsthal" mine in what is now the Czech Republic, though the two are from different production batches. The cube, according to specialists at the JRC's Institute for Transuranium...

Iran said on Monday it is considering plans to start building two new uranium enrichment plants from March, with the sites concealed in the mountains to avert air strikes. The announcement from Iran's atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi comes just days after the UN nuclear watchdog raised concerns that Tehran could be building a nuclear warhead. "Inshallah (God willing), in the next Iranian year (starting in March) as ordered by the president (Mahmoud Ahmadinejad), we may start the construction of two new enrichment sites," Salehi told ISNA news agency. He said the enrichment capacities of the new sites would be...

Niger voted on Tuesday in a referendum the president hopes will give him a mandate to change the constitution and rule beyond the end of his term. Mamadou Tandja’s growing authoritarianism has raised fears of unrest in Africa’s second biggest uranium producer. The European Union on Tuesday warned that Mr Tandja’s actions could lead it to cut aid. In recent months, the president has governed by decree after dissolving parliament and disregarding the Supreme Court’s ruling against his plans to extend his stay in office beyond a two-term limit. “In voting today [Tuesday], I believe I have responded to the...

Niger's new military junta says it has dissolved the government after a coup that toppled President Mamadou Tandja in the impoverished but uranium-rich west African country. The Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy (CSRD) announced on Friday that its head would be squadron leader Salou Djibo, whose heavily armed unit played a key role in Thursday's coup. "The government is dissolved," said a statement signed by Djibo and read by an unnamed military officer on state television.

Niger's President Mamadou Tandja was detained by mutinous troops on Thursday after a coup in the west African uranium exporter that left at least three soldiers dead, military sources said. Three Nigerian military sources said the coup was led by a soldier named Major Adamou Harouna. "The coup leader has succeeded. It is being led by Major Adamou Harouna," one source said. The president and the ministers are being detained not far from the presidential palace, the sources added. Earlier in the day plumes of smoke were seen rising from the palace after soldiers attacked the building where Tandja was...

Iran's ambassador to the UN nuclear watchdog insists that Tehran will not bow to the West's pressure on Tehran's abandoning of its enrichment activities. "Iran will never give up enrichment at any price. Even the threat of military attack will not stop us," said Ali-Asghar Soltanieh in an interview with the New Statesman, a British current affairs magazine published Wednesday. The Iranian ambassador reiterated that the West had to accept that Iran was a "master of enrichment." "The West just has to cope with a strong Iran, a country with thousands of years of civilization that is now the master...

Note: The following text is a quote: Mullen: Iran’s Goal to Further Enrich Uranium ‘Destabilizing’ By John J. Kruzel American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, Feb. 16, 2010 – The top U.S. military officer criticized Iran’s recent announcement that it would increase levels of uranium enrichment to 20 percent, saying the move further destabilizes the Middle East. The remarks by Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, came after the government in Tehran reportedly vowed on Feb. 9 to produce uranium at higher levels, fueling fears it would move Iran a step closer to obtaining nuclear weaponry....

January 11, 2010 Special Dispatch No.2743 "Iranian Atomic Energy Organization Head: 'We Have the Right to Enrich Uranium to 100%' SNIPPET: "In a January 9, 2010 interview on Iranian TV, Iranian Atomic Energy Organization head Ali Akbar Salehi said that Iran had the right to enrich uranium to 100%, but that it nevertheless preferred to purchase the nuclear fuel it needed from other countries. It should be noted that uranium enriched to 90% or higher is used only for military purposes, in the construction of nuclear weapons." SNIPPET: "Endnote: [1] ISNA, IRIB (Iran), January 10, 2010"

Yesterday Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said "The Iranian nation, with its unity and God's grace, will punch the arrogance [Western powers] on the 22nd of Bahman [Feb. 11] in a way that will leave them stunned," Today, despite the objections of the US and its allies, Iran began enriching uranium to a higher level bringing the Islamic republic closer to having nuclear weapons. Meanwhile in the country Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says should be "wiped off the face of the earth", Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for immediate and crippling sanctions against Iran

Iran will make the political decision to enrich uranium to military-grade levels once it has accumulated enough fissionable material for a small arsenal of three to four nuclear devices, according to latest intelligence assessments. Iran, according to the recent International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report, has already accumulated 1.8 tons of uranium enriched to four percent. Iran has announced plans to begin enriching uranium to 20% levels for use as fuel in a research reactor it has in Teheran, which is expected to exhaust its present stock within the year. Although material for the fissile core of a nuclear warhead...

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran said on Tuesday it was ready to send its uranium abroad for further enrichment as requested by the U.N. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced the decision in an interview with state Iranian television. He said Iran will have "no problem" giving the West its low-enriched uranium and taking it back several months later when it is enriched by 20 percent. The decision could signal a major shift in the Iranian position on the issue.

TEHERAN - Iran said on Tuesday it was ready to send its uranium abroad for further enrichment as requested by the UN. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced the decision in an interview with state Iranian television. He said Iran will have "no problem" giving the West its low enriched uranium and taking it back several months later when it is enriched by 20 percent. The decision is a major shift in the Iranian position on the issue. For months, Iranian officials have used the media to criticize the plan and offer alternatives to one of its main conditions — shipping...

SNIPPET: "During a meeting with Mauritanian President Muhammad Ould Abdelaziz, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said that the elimination of Israel was a certainty, and that accomplishing this was up to the Islamic countries." SNIPPET: "It should be noted that Mauritania has uranium mines."

Uranium rosary. Only slightly less powerful than the plutonium powered version!!!

Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said on Monday that Iran's recently diclosed second uranium enrichment plant is "immune" to conventional bombing. "The new site near Qom is meant for enrichment. What was revealed by the Iranians had been built over years and is located in bunkers that cannot be destroyed through a conventional attack," Barak told parliament's foreign affairs and defence committee. Iran notified the UN nuclear watchdog in September that it was building a second enrichment plant near the central shrine city of Qom, after Washington accused it of covertly evading its notification responsibilities under the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Confirmation...

It's showtime, folks! Today's the deadline President Obama imposed on Iran's leaders to give up their nuclear ambitions and be nice. Not sure if the deadline expires at midnight in Tehran or on Washington time, but the mullahs and President Mahmoud "Mighty Mouse" Ahmadinejad aren't scrambling to give Obama a New Year's Eve smooch. Rather than cave in to our president's mighty rhetoric, the Tehran tyrants took a break from killing protesters in the streets to attempt to import more than 1,300 tons of make-a-nuke uranium ore from Kazakhstan.