North Korea
An official with South Korea’s foreign ministry said on Friday that Seoul and Washington were on high alert following a US media report that North Korea might be preparing for an underground nuclear bomb test.
FT 19th August 2006
Iran
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has urged British voters to throw Tony Blair’s government out of office to prevent Britain being drawn into new foreign policy “disasters” in the Middle East. Speaking to a British newspaper for the first time since he took power a year ago, Mr Ahmadinejad told the Guardian that Britain’s failure to push for an early ceasefire in the war in Lebanon, and its continuing role in the occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, were doing “lasting damage” to its reputation among Muslims. The Iranian president also suggested that the UN security council’s failure to act sooner in the Lebanon crisis had undermined its ability to deal credibly with the dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme that will come to a head next week.
Guardian 19th August 2006
Decommissioning
Government admit ‘considerable uncertainty still remains in relation to the cost of decommissioning and clean up.’ £70 billion nuclear clean up bill ‘set to rise’ as government admit ‘considerable uncertainty still remains in relation to the cost of decommissioning and clean up.’ The Commons Trade and Industry Committee today expressed concern about continued uncertainty over the taxpayers’ bill for the disposal of civil nuclear operations.
Green Party Press Release 16th August 2006
EDIE 17th August 2006
