Iran
Iran will strike against US interests worldwide if it is attacked, the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned.
BBC 8th Feb 2007
Scotsman 9th Feb 2007
FT 9th Feb 2007
Europeans are accusing the Americans of strong-arming them into cracking down on Iran in the latest trans-Atlantic conflict – a dispute that is straining efforts to maintain a joint front over Tehran’s refusal to freeze uranium enrichment.
Daily Mail website 8th Feb 2007
A survey found that nearly half the people surveyed in the US and Iran thought that American military action against Iran is likely in the next year or two. Iranians overwhelmingly support their government’s drive to enrich uranium to produce electrical power but they don’t favour developing nuclear weapons, according to a poll released Wednesday.
Middle East Online 8th Feb 2007
For the first time in four years, the US has a good card to play in threatening Iran. But its decision this week to try to sever Iran’s links with financial markets is revealing how successful Tehran has been in building those ties and how many friends it can claim.
Times 9th Feb 2007
North Korea
The prospect of initial steps towards ending North Korea’s nuclear arms programme brightened on Friday as negotiators considered a plan for Pyongyang to suspend operations at a nuclear plant within two months. But North Korea warned against reading too much into the first day of talks and “counting chickens before they hatch”.
Reuters 9th Feb 2007
The US was poised for an embarrassing climbdown as a new round of six-nation talks over North Korea opened yesterday, the best hope for a breakthrough since the standoff over Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons programme began in 2002. According to diplomats and foreign affairs experts, the Bush administration is likely to drop several of the sanctions it has imposed in the past five years in return for a freezing of the Yongbyon reactor and a return of international nuclear inspectors. This would take Washington’s position almost back to the situation that existed before US officials started the current confrontation by accusing North Korea of secretly enriching uranium. Pyongyang, meanwhile, has conducted an atomic bomb test and declared itself a fully fledged member of the nuclear club.
Guardian 9th Feb 2007
North Korea agreed in principle to take initial steps towards dismantling its nuclear programmes at the start of international talks seeking the first concrete progress on disarming Pyongyang.
Telegraph 9th Feb 2007
Negotiations aimed at closing down North Korea’s nuclear programme resumed today in a rare atmosphere of optimism, with both sides hinting at the first meaningful progress for more than a year.
Times website 8th Feb 2007
Times 9th Feb 2007
Factbox on the position of the six parties to the Korea talks.
Reuters 8th Feb 2007
Canada
Red-faced officials at Canada’s nuclear safety watchdog on Thursday said they were probing how a hacker had managed to litter its official Web site with dozens of colour photographs of a nuclear explosion.
Reuters 8th Feb 2007
Sellafield
EIGHTEEN workers at the Sellafield nuclear power plant are being investigated over a racist email “joke”.
Daily Mirror 9th Feb 2007
British Energy
British Energy is close to re-testing recent lows after a 21p fall to 419p on lower energy prices, but there is also vague talk the expected target date to get the Hinkley and Hunterston reactors back at full capacity could face further delays. Both are due to be fully operational by the end of March.
Independent 9th Feb 2007
British Energy sank 4.8 per cent to 419p in heavy volume of 19m on worries ahead of Tuesday’s third-quarter results. Investors will scour the results statement for news on when its Hinkley Point and Hunterston power stations will come back on line.
FT 9th Feb 2007
New nukes
If Tony really wants to win the nation over to his plan for loads of nice new nuclear power stations, he could do worse than peruse the latest issue of the International Journal of Nuclear Governance, Economy and Ecology, which reveals that in seven US regions with nuclear facilities, “total property values … and median housing prices have increased at rates above national and state averages”. And in the vicinity of each plant, the journal continues, “housing prices were several times higher than prior to the opening of the nuclear facilities”. What, when all’s said and done, is more likely to convince a sceptical Brit than that.
Guardian 9th Feb 2007
