BERLIN: Egypt’s long-standing President Hosni Mubarak said Thursday former UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei could run in the 2011 presidential election as long as he respected the constitution.

ElBaradei, emerging as Egypt’s most high-profile dissident, has called for an amendment of the constitution which includes rules that would make it difficult for him to challenge Mubarak at the ballot box.

“If he wants to join a party, he could choose whichever one he wants,” Mubarak told reporters during a visit to Germany, according to a translation of his comments in Arabic.

“If he wants to be a candidate for that party (at the presidential elections), he could do that. If he wants to stand as an independent candidate, he could do that,” he said.

“The only thing is that he must respect the constitution,” he said, adding the country “does not need a new hero”.

Under Egyptian law, a presidential candidate is required to have been a leading member of a party for at least one year and for the party to have existed for at least five years.

As an independent, ElBaradei would need the backing of at least 250 elected officials from parliament’s upper and lower houses and from municipal councils — all bodies dominated by Mubarak’s National Democratic Party.

ElBaradei last month he flew to Cairo to a rapturous welcome from supporters and formed the National Association for Change, before leaving Egypt again. He is due to return.

He has said he would run for president on condition that the constitution is amended.

The 67-year-old former chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency has also called for democratic reforms of the Egyptian regime which Mubarak, 81, has headed for nearly three decades.

Mubarak met journalists after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

He is due to have medical tests in the city of Heidelberg Friday after suffering gall bladder pain, Egypt public television announced Thursday in a rare statement on the leader’s health, which is almost taboo.

LAHORE, Pakistan News: Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) Quaid Mian Nawaz Sharif says he will not become a part of any conspiracy against the government.
He said that in Musharraf era too parliament was ‘one-man show’ as Musharraf didn’t care about wishes of 170 million people of Pakistan. Sharif maintained PML-N wants 17th amendment to be repealed. “Parliament is needed to be strengthened and we will respect mandate of others as per the Charter of Democracy,” Sharif added. He vowed to resist every conspiracy against the government. “Entire nation is passing through testing times right now,” he added.

TEHRAN : New Uranium Units Not to Confront IAEA: President Ahmadinejad, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that Iran’s plan to build 10 new uranium enrichment plants was not aimed at confronting the UN atomic watchdog, which censured Tehran last month.

He also said Iran will continue to build the new plants, adding that sites for five of the 10 units had been finalised.

“The news that we announced (about the new plants) was not to confront the board of the agency, as we had assigned the (Iranian) atomic energy organisation to locate several sites (for the new plants) months ago,” the state television website quoted him as saying.

“We recently even asked them (Iran’s atomic agency) about the delay” in identifying the sites, Ahmadinejad said, adding that Iran has always “acted on its decisions, which are definite.”

Soon after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) condemned Iran for building its second uranium enrichment plant late last month, Ahmadinejad announced his government’s decision to build 10 new plants.

Iranian Vice President and atomic chief Ali Akbar Salehi said at the time that the plan to build the new plants was a response to the IAEA decision.

“The decision taken today is a firm reply to the indecent move by the five-plus-one in the latest IAEA meeting,” Salehi said on November 29, refering to the six world powers comprising the permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany who backed the IAEA resolution.

MUMBAI: Indian officials leave no chance to raise fingers at security of nuclear assets of Pakistan but a fresh incident exposes fragility of Indian nukes.

Indian Nuclear Research Centre has confirmed an incident of nuclear theft as three men were caught with five kilogrammes of “regulated and prescribed material” Uranium-238 on Mumbai’s outskirts. They are suspected to have got the radioactive material, also known as depleted uranium, from an imported scrap consignment belonging to a Navi Mumbai company.

They were booked under sections of the Atomic Energy Act by the Panvel police. Nuclear experts say that Uranium-238 is a “protected material” with only special and regulated agencies allowed to possess and transport it.

Premsingh Tangayan Savitri of Sai Nagar in Panvel, Venkat Dalapathi of Vashi and Tulsidas Bhanushali of Ghatkopar were produced in the Panvel court and remanded in police custody till December 17. They have been charged under Section 24 (1)(a) of the Atomic Energy Act, 1962, which lists the offences for prohibition of acquisition, production, and possession of Central Government prescribed material.

The arrested men are suspected to be “mediators” in a deal with a third party. The police are yet to find the watchman and establish the identity of the possible buyer, the sources conceded.

Experts say natural uranium has 99.03 per cent of Uranium-238 and only 0.07 per cent Uranium-235, considered enriched uranium. An increase in the concentration of U-235 raises the energy quotient of the substance. Nuclear scientists said uranium is a highly strategic material due to its use in nuclear and power reactors and should not be exposed to or even possessed by commoners.

“Even in a depleted state, it is carried in containers and highly shielded as it can still be hazardous,” said an expert, adding that it is known to be found in Jharkhand, Bihar and was recently found in Nagpur.

Defence advocate Prafulla Mhatre said, “The three are innocent. The police in their remand application have said they want the custody to ascertain the source of the uranium and also to probe what it was being used for.”

TEHRAN: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected on Wednesday as “illegal” a U.N. nuclear watchdog resolution over the country’s disputed nuclear activities, state television reported.

Ahmadinejad also said Israel could not do a “damn thing” to stop the Islamic state’s nuclear programme, which the West suspects is a front to build bombs. Iran denies the claim.

“Under pressure of a few superficially powerful countries … the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) passed an illegal resolution against the Iranian nation,” Ahmadinejad said in a televised speech in the central city of Isfahan.

The IAEA passed a resolution on Friday censuring Iran for covertly constructing a second enrichment plant near the holy city of Qom, in addition to its IAEA-monitored one at Natanz, and demanding a construction halt.

Tehran said on Sunday it would build 10 more uranium enrichment sites in retaliation for the resolution, which sailed through with unusual Russian and Chinese support.

Israel, which Iran refuses to recognise, has said a nuclear- armed Iran would be a threat to its existence and points to Ahmadinejad’s calls for Israel to be wiped off the map.

That has raised concerns that Israel could ultimately carry out a military strike against Iranian nuclear sites.

U.S. President Barack Obama said Washington wanted Iran’s nuclear dispute to be resolved through diplomacy but has not ruled out other options.

Ahmadinejad said Israel could not harm Iran, ruling out any further talks with six major powers over the nuclear dispute.

“The Zionist regime (Israel) and its (Western) backers can not do a damn thing to stop Iran’s nuclear work,” Ahmadinejad told a crowd to chants of “Death to Israel” and “death to America”.

Iran ruled out sending enriched uranium abroad for further processing, but would consider swapping it for nuclear fuel provided it remained under supervision inside the country.
The decision is expected to anger the United States and its allies, which had called on Iran to accept a deal which aimed to delay Tehran’s potential ability to make bombs by at least a year by divesting Iran of most of its enriched uranium. A draft deal brokered by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), calls on Iran to send some 75 percent of its low-enriched uranium to Russia and France, Iran Rejects Sending Uranium Abroad, where it would be turned into fuel for a Tehran medical research reactor. “Surely we will not send our 3.5 percent fuel abroad but can review swapping it simultaneously with nuclear fuel inside Iran,” Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told. The United States has rejected Iranian calls for amendments and further talks on the deal. President Barack Obama said time was running out for diplomacy to resolve a long standoff over Iran’s nuclear program. Mottaki criticized Washington for pressuring Iran to accept the deal. “Diplomacy is not black or white. Pressuring Iran to accept what they want is a non-diplomatic approach,” he said. Russia and France, which are both also involved in the fuel proposal, also pressed Iran to accept it as is. Tehran faces possible harsher international sanctions and risks even Israeli military action to knock out its nuclear sites. Iran says it needs nuclear technology to generate power but its history of secrecy and restricting UN inspections have raised Western suspicions of a covert quest for atom bombs.

TEHRAN: IAEA’s Mohammed El-Baradei arrives Tehran, Mohammed El-Baradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, arrived in Tehran last night for discussions on Sunday with Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organisation and other officials.

His visit comes as pressure mounts on Iran again following a warning from President Barack Obama that his patience is limited. The US president has demanded swift action from the Iranian regime.

An Iranian official told journalists that Mr El-Baradei will discuss a timetable for inspectors to visit a newly disclosed nuclear enrichment plant.

Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defended the nuclear programme, including the building of the second plant which was revealed to the outside world for the first time last week.

“Iran’s actions are based on honesty,” he said. “We did not have any secret (nuclear) work because we gave information (about the new plant) ahead of time,” to the IAEA, he said at a ceremony in the capital.

He also accused the American president of “a great mistake” in criticising Iran over the secret plant. “We gave the information sooner.. but his (Obama’s) information was wrong. He said incorrect words,” Ahmadinejad said.

Iranian newspapers on Saturday praised their government for gaining the upper hand in the Swiss talks – not the view taken in the outside world.

UNITED NATIONS: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad disputed assertions by the US, France and Britain that it has built a secret nuclear-fuel facility.

“It is a very ordinary facility in the beginning stages,” Ahmadinejad told reporters in New York today. “It is not a secret facility; if it was why did we inform the IAEA ahead of time?”

The Iranian leader said the International Atomic Energy Agency  was told about the facility before the disclosure was required. He said the plant is 18 months away from operations.

Ahmadinejad spoke after U.S. President Barack Obama and the leaders of France and Britain said in Pittsburgh that Iran has been secretly secretly building an underground nuclear fuel plant in violation of international rules.

Meanwhile, the United Nations nuclear watchdog said it is seeking information and access to a new fuel enrichment plant that Iran says it is building. Marc Vidricaire, a spokesperson for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Iran informed the Vienna-based body in a letter on 21 September that a new plant is under construction, and that further information will be provided in an appropriate and due time.

“The IAEA has requested Iran to provide specific information and access to the facility as soon as possible,” Vidricaire said.

“This will allow the Agency to assess safeguards verification requirements for the facility.” He added that the IAEA understands from Iran that no nuclear material has been introduced into the facility.

WASHINGTON: A US newspaper reports that President Barack Obama and the leaders of France and Britain will charge Iran with constructing a secret facility to produce nuclear fuel.

The three leaders will make the announcement Friday in and will demand Tehran open the facility up to inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Senior administration officials tell the paper that Iran has kept the covert operation hidden from international weapons inspectors for years.

The officials say the plant, 100 miles southwest of Tehran, could be in operation by next year.

TEHRAN: Iran says it has built a new generation of centrifuges for enriching uranium, and is testing them.

The head of Iran’s nuclear agency made the announcement but did not say when they would be ready to go into production at the Natanz atomic plant.

Centrifuges can be used to produce fuel for nuclear power and also to make nuclear weapons.

The announcement comes a few days before Iran enters fresh talks on its controversial nuclear programme.

“Our scientists have built a new generation of centrifuges, and cascades with 10 centrifuges each are now being tested,” said Ali Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran.