Asia

Iran has confirmed that its higher-grade enriched uranium is being converted into reactor fuel, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson announced. He also called for destruction of all nuclear arms following N. Korea's third nuclear test.
 
"We need to come to the point where no country has any nuclear weapons and at the same time all weapons of mass destruction and nuclear arms need to be destroyed," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ramin Mehmanparast told state news agency IRNA.

However, countries should have the right to "make use of nuclear activities for peaceful purposes," he added.

Speaking in Moscow, Iran's foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi also said that North Korea as a sovereign state had its right to carry out a nuclear test.

"North Korea, as far as I know, is not signatory to Non-Proliferation Treaty, so it can afford acting according to its own interests," Salehi told journalists.

Pyongyang withdrew from the NPT in 2003 to protest accusations of launching an enriched uranium weapons program. Salehi added that Iran is not considering quitting the treaty.

'Iran converting 20 percent enriched uranium into reactor fuel'

Referring to recent media reports that Iran had already converted some of its 20-percent-enriched uranium into fuel for the Tehran Research Reactor, Mehmanparast said that “this work is being done and all its reports have been sent to the International Atomic Energy Agency in a complete manner.”

The spokesperson added that Iran is ready to allow nuclear inspectors to visit their Parchin military site, providing world powers recognize Tehran's right to enrich uranium. The International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear watchdog, believes Iran might be using Parchin to develop nuclear weapons.

The press conference comes after an AP report on Monday alleging that Iran had begun to convert some of its existing nuclear material, which could potentially be used in weapons, into another form. The material is in amounts large enough to feed concerns about its atomic program, according to anonymous sources quoted by AP.

Shortly after the report emerged, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed once again that Tehran is drawing close to a “red line,” telling visiting American Jewish leaders that Iran must be stopped. He also urged stronger pressure and further sanctions on the Islamic Republic. Last September, Netanyahu called on the UN General Assembly to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

The West has repeatedly insisted that Iran is developing atomic weapons and imposed several rounds of sanctions against Tehran targeting its oil and banking sectors. Experts fear that Iran could have enough 20-percent uranium for a bomb by the summer, if enrichment continues. The 20-percent material is technically only a step away from weapons-grade uranium.

However, the substance can also be used for peaceful purposes and Iran insists that their nuclear program is designed to meet the country's growing energy and medical needs. Converting enriched uranium into fuel is also one of the ways for Tehran to slow the growth in its stockpile of material that could be used to make a bomb.

Iran is expecting a new offer from world powers in international nuclear talks which are deemed to take place in late February in Kazakhstan, a member of its negotiating team said on Monday. Iran and the P5+1 group (the US, UK, Russia, China, France and Germany) are to resume negotiations after an eight-month break, following up three failed meetings previous year.

Their last meeting in Moscow yielded no breakthrough as Iran rejected calls from the group to suspend part of its program and asked for a substantial sanctions relief in return.

On February 26,  P-5+1 group will meet with Iran as part of routine summit in Kazakhstan. The talks are expected to focus on Iran's controversial nuclear program.

Moscow intends to bring up the issue of Tehran’s reluctance to comply with UNSC demands and freeze its uranium enrichment.

A defiant North Korea has conducted its third nuclear test, prompting a wave of international criticism from governments and other organization. It also said that more “measures” may follow, raising concerns that more nuclear devices may be exploded.

Pyongyang said the Tuesday morning explosion was part of an effort to protect its national security and sovereignty, citing US opposition to the recent North Korean space launch.

"It was confirmed that the nuclear test – that was carried out at a high level in a safe and perfect manner using a miniaturized and lighter nuclear device with greater explosive force than previously – did not pose any negative impact on the surrounding ecological environment," North Korea's KCNA state news agency said.

The move came in defiance of the UN and individual nations, which have pressured North Korea not to proceed with its plan. After the test sparked condemnation, Pyongyang threatened that if the US responds to the test “with hostility,” then unspecified “second and third measures” may follow. This corresponds with earlier speculation that Pyongyang seeks to detonate more than one nuclear device.

North Korean diplomat Jon Yong Ryong also told the UN disarmament forum in Geneva that his country "will never bow down to any resolution," in respondr to criticisms that the nuclear test violated several UN Security Council resolutions banning such actions.

South Korean President-elect Park Geun-hye strongly condemned the new test. She said her incoming administration would not tolerate a nuclear-armed North Korea “under any circumstances,” and pledged to enact strong deterrence measures against Pyongyang's nuclear program.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry has urged all parties involved to reduce tensions and solve the issue through dialogue in the framework of six-party talks. It also expressed “firm opposition” to the test, called on North Korea not to take any actions that would aggravate the situation, and to “honor its commitment to denuclearization”.

US President Barack Obama warned that both Tuesday’s test and the earlier satellite launch are provocations, and that “far from achieving its stated goal of becoming a strong and prosperous nation, North Korea has instead increasingly isolated and impoverished its people through its ill-advised pursuit of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery.” He threatened"further swift and credible action" against Pyongyang.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon has condemned the nuclear test, calling it “deplorable” and a “grave violation of the relevant Security Council resolutions.” The statement released by Ban’s spokesperson voiced concern over the “negative impact of this deeply destabilizing act on regional stability as well as the global efforts for nuclear non-proliferation.”

The test was also criticized by Britain, Russia, Japan, France, Germany, the EU, the IAEA and NATO.

South Korea called for an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council to discuss the developments. It is expected to be held at 9:00 a.m. EST (1400 GMT) on Tuesday.

The likely response to the nuclear test will be a new round of sanctions from the UN. But no matter how many sanctions other nations impose on Pyongyang, it is unlikely to yield to demands voiced by Washington, Asia specialist Tim Beal explained.

“No country really changes policy under sanctions if the alternative, what is being required, is worse than the sanctions,” he told RT. “And that is the case with North Korea. North Korea in a sense could surrender to American demands, but that in fact in their eyes would be worse that what the Americans can do to them with sanctions. So they will persevere until the Americans come to the negotiation table.”

The United States Geological Survey confirmes an earthquake in North Korea's northeast of between 4.9- and 5.1-magnitude, at a depth of about one kilometer.

The Japanese Meteorological Agency reports that the tremor's epicenter was located in Kilju county, at exactly the same place and depth as the quake caused by North Korea's last known underground nuclear test in 2009. North Korea’s first nuclear test in 2006 was also carried out at the Punggye-ri test site.

Pyongyang informed the US and China of its plans for a nuclear test on Monday, Yonhap reported. North Korea said it would continue with the test despite pressure from the UN Security Council and its non-UNSC neighbors.

The South Korean military estimate that the yield of the nuclear explosion was between six and seven kilotons. Russia’s defense ministry says the size of the blast was over seven kilotons. The Vienna-based Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization said the yield was roughly twice as big as the previous nuclear test in 2009.

Further investigation into the nature of the explosion is underway. The evidence gathered – including seismic data, satellite images and data from spy planes detecting radioactive fallout – could allow researchers to deduct the status of North Korea’s secretive nuclear program.

So far, the isolated country was believed to be unable to build a nuclear device small enough to fit onto one of its long-range ballistic missiles, making its nuclear capabilities virtually useless for offensive warfare.

Concerns over the claimed miniaturization effort were fueled by North Korea's rocket launch last December. Pyongyang said it put a satellite into orbit for civilian purposes, and for national prestige, but many countries claimed it was a clandestine rocket weapons test.

The UN Security Council condemned the launch, which it said was carried out in violation of a UNSC resolution banning the development of ballistic technology by North Korea.

An hour after the test, Japan said that it is considering leveling further sanctions against North Korea.

"I have ordered that we consider every possible way to address this issue, including our own sanctions, while cooperating with other countries," Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told reporters after a meeting of Japan's security council.

The news of the suspicious seismic activity in North Korea came days after South Korea and the US threatened that they may carry out a pre-emptive strike at North Korean facilities to halt its nuclear program.

China, North Korea’s main economic partner and only ally, said Pyongyang would pay a “heavy price” and threatened to scale down aid should it carry out a nuclear test.

North Korea staged an apparent nuclear test Tuesday in a striking act of defiance that, if confirmed, is sure to trigger global condemnation from enemies and allies alike, AFP reports.

Mi-17 helicopter owned by Azerbaijan Defense Ministry fell into the sea near Shikhovo village 250 meters from the shoreline.

Students leave classes to join Shahbagh gathering

The youth-led upsurge for death penalty for all war criminals and ban on Jamaat politics has virtually transformed into a youth revolution and continues to rage on, outweighing almost all other political issues and pushing the hitherto arrogant Jamaat-Shibir activists into a nervous defensive position.

The spontaneous uprising against the ICT verdict on Jamaat leader Quader Mollah passed off its fifth day on Saturday with growing numbers of people participating in it from across the country by voicing the demand for capital punishment for those guilty of committing crimes against humanity during the war of liberation in 1971.

On Saturday, hundreds of students of schools, colleges and universities left their classes and streamed to Shahbagh Square to raise their voice against the war criminals, in what many described as a new war of independence.

Meanwhile, reports reaching here say that the movement demanding death sentence for Mollah and other war criminals has gained momentum and rocked the whole of the country, including remote village areas where rallies and processions are being held to press home the demand.

There is no sign of end to spontaneous demonstrations at Shahbagh intersection, now known as Projanma Chattar, until and unless the death penalty is awarded to Quader Mollah and other war criminals.

No assurance other than the capital punishment can make the demonstrators leave Projanma Chattar as protesters continued their non-stop demo.

Like the previous day, the area turned into a human sea on Saturday with spontaneous participation of tens of thousands of people from all walks of life, irrespective of their age, creed and class.

The protesters shouted slogan that they wanted “no assurance other than execution of Quader Mollah”.

State Minister for Law Quamrul Islam’s statement on incorporation of a provision into the International Crimes (Tribunal) Act 1973 to pave the way for the government to file an appeal against life term in jail for Quader Mollah failed to pacify the protestors.

They said they would not leave (Projanma Chattar) until the execution of Quader Mollah.

“We, the young generation, will force the government to fulfil our demands. We will not leave this place until Quader Mollah and other identified Razakars are hanged,” said a demonstrator, Russell Chowdury.

Gani Foysal, a student of Dhaka City College, said, “We demand punishment for all Razakars, no matter whatever political party they belong to.”

A group of 150-200 students of the college joined the protesters at 3:00pm.

The sit-in started with a song recently composed by noted singer Kabir Sumon over the uprising against Razakars and Jamaat-e Islami.

A Chhayanaut team joined the demonstrators and performed patriotic songs to incense the protest.

Many small groups of the agitators continued their protests chanting slogans, singing patriotic songs, staging drama and lighting candles in a neo style of movement of the present times.

Police put up barricades in front of Ruposhi Bangla Hotel, Shishu Park, Aziz Supermarket and the Institute of Fine Arts to divert the traffic, creating severe gridlock on the streets surrounding Shahbagh.
 

Aid workers struggled to reach remote, tsunami-ravaged villages in the Solomon Islands on Thursday, as the death toll rose with more bodies found in wrecked homes and debris in the South Pacific island chain.

An AN-24 plane owned by Scat airline skid off the runway during landing in Almaty airport in Kazakhstan, Tengrinews.kz reports citing the company's press-service.

A woman has been tortured and burned alive in Papua New Guinea after being accused of using sorcery to kill a young boy, local media report.

The woman, a mother aged 20 named as Kepari Leniata, was stripped, tied up and doused in petrol by the boy's relatives in Mount Hagen in the Western Highlands, said the National newspaper.

She was then thrown onto a fire in front of hundreds of people.

Police and firefighters were unable to intervene, the paper said.

The Post Courier newspaper said they had been outnumbered by the crowd and chased away. Both newspapers published graphic photos of the incident on their front pages.

Provincial police commander Supt Kaiglo Ambane told the National that police were treating the case as murder and would arrest those responsible.

In parts of the Pacific nation deaths and mysterious illnesses are sometimes blamed on suspected sorcerers. Several reports have emerged in recent years of accused people, usually women, being killed.

In 2009, after a string of such killings, the chairman of PNG's Constitutional Review and Law Reform Commission said defendants were using accusations of witchcraft as an excuse to kill people, and called for tougher legislation to tackle the issue.

Local Christian bishop David Piso told the National that sorcery-related killings were a growing problem, and urged the government to "to come up with a law to stop such practice".

The US embassy in the capital, Port Moresby, condemned the killing as a "brutal murder", the AFP news agency reports, and evidence of "pervasive gender-based violence" in Papua New Guinea.

"There is no possible justification for this sort of violence. We hope that appropriate resources are devoted to identifying, prosecuting, and punishing those responsible for Ms Leniata's murder."
 

The cost of corruption has risen sharply in Afghanistan but fewer people are paying bribes, a UN report says.

It said the amount rose in 2012 to $3.9bn, twice the country's domestic revenue and that 50% of Afghans were paying bribes compared to 58% in 2009.

Increasing numbers of people say they find it acceptable for civil servants to take small bribes, the report adds.

The government blames the international community's system of giving contracts to officials for spreading corruption.

However, it accepts that the problem is rife within its own ranks.

The BBC's Bilal Sarwary says that what is revealed in this report could just be the tip of the iceberg.

It is also unclear to what extent respondents felt able to speak openly about the bribery and corruption they have to contend with, our correspondent says.
'Correct strategy needed'

The report was compiled jointly by the UN office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and Afghanistan's anti-corruption unit, based on a survey of 6,700 people,

It says that while there has been ''some tangible progress'' in the fight against corruption, the total cost of corruption rose to $3.9bn in 2012, a 40% jump over the 2009 figure.

According to the report, the bribes Afghans paid last year amounted to double the country's domestic revenue or one-quarter of the $16bn promised by donors for Afghanistan at a conference in Japan last year.

But corruption appears to be increasingly tolerated by ordinary people and "embedded in social practices", the report added.

More than 68% surveyed considered it acceptable for a civil servant to top up a low salary by accepting small bribes - up from 42% in 2009, it said.

"Afghans know that corruption is eating at the fabric of their society," said UNODC regional representative Jean-Luc Lemahieu.

"The solution is not only to be found within the government but also within the wider community."

The report noted that while the cost of corruption had risen, the total number of people paying bribes had dropped from 58% in 2009 to 50% last year - but they were paying more often.

It said that the education sector had become especially vulnerable, with the number of Afghans bribing teachers jumping from 16% in 2009 to 51% in 2012.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has repeatedly called for greater efforts to deal with the problem.

He has appealed to the US and other countries not to give construction, reconstruction and business contracts to Afghan government officials or their relatives, which he says is making the problem worse.

UN officials said it was not a question of recognising the problem but finding the right way to do something about it.

"Nobody doubts the seriousness of the issue, the art is to design the correct strategy to remedy the situation. The findings of the survey will allow us to do so," Mr Lemahieu said.
 

North Korea has vowed to carry out a third nuclear test, but scientists and concerned foreign governments may have a tough time verifying the actions of the reclusive state, AFP reports.

Kazakhstan National Security Commission neutralized 42 extremist groups and prevented 35 violent protests in 2011 and 2012, Tengrinews.kz reports citing Kazakhstan President's Central Communications Service.

After being handed down a shocking death sentence last month for smuggling cocaine to Bali, a British grandmother expected to have years of appeals ahead of her before she ever risked facing a firing squad, could be executed within weeks, RadarOnline.com is reporting.

Lindsay June Sandiford, 56, from Gloucestershire, England, is being held at Kerobokan Jail after being arrested at the airport last May following 10.6 pounds of cocaine, worth $2.5 million, being discovered in the lining of her suitcase — however she maintains that she was forced to take the drugs into the country by a gang that was threatening to hurt her children.

Indonesia expressed this week its intention to resume executions for the first time sine 2008, and Government officials have revealed that Sandiford’s high-profile conviction is what led to the deadly decision, reported the UK’s Independent.

Basrief Arief, who was sworn in as the country’s Attorney General last November, expressed his desire to shorten both the appeals process and increase executions now that he has taken office, which is bad news for the British granny and the 12 other inmates currently on death row.

The deadline for Sandiford to lodge her appeal is February 12 but she is currently struggling to afford a lawyer after being turned down for legal support by the British Foreign Office.

“It is deeply disappointing that the Foreign Office chose to fight against helping Lindsay in the British courts, rather than fighting for her in Indonesia,” said Harriet McCulloch, spokesperson for nonprofit human rights campaigners Reprieve.

“Lindsay has under two weeks in which to file an appeal against her death sentence — which means dealing with complicated legal documents in Indonesian, a language she does not understand. She has no money for a lawyer, and time is running out.”

While Sandiford got a much harsher sentence than the 15 years prosecutors requested, the man who arranged to meet her to pick up the mountain of drugs only got six years in prison for his part in the trafficking ring.

Julian Ponder, of Brighton, England, was found guilty on January 29 of possessing narcotics and faced a possible life sentence after 23 grams of cocaine were found in his villa when he was arrested.

“I think it’s light enough,” said his lawyer, Ary Sunardi, after hearing the sentence that was one year less than what the prosecution recommended.

“We will suggest that he accept the sentence.”