TEHRAN, Iran – Defiant lawmakers, shouting “Death to America,” unanimously voted Sunday to approve the outline of a bill requiring the government to resume uranium enrichment.
Nevertheless, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Hossein Mousavian, said that a compromise could still be reached with European negotiators to avert the risk of U.N. sanctions.
Britain, France and Germany have offered Iran a trade deal and peaceful nuclear technology – including a light-water research reactor – in return for assurances Iran would indefinitely stop enriching uranium.
Mousavian ruled out an indefinite suspension of enrichment activities. But he suggested Iran would consider halting the building of more nuclear facilities, which it would need to produce enough fuel for additional power plants.
Washington has accused Iran of trying to build atomic weapons and has pushed for the case to be referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions if Tehran doesn’t give up all uranium enrichment activities before a Nov. 25 meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog.
Tehran maintains its nuclear program is for peaceful energy purposes.
Nigeria: Unions call for strikes
Unions declared the top oil multinational here, Royal Dutch/Shell, “an enemy of the Nigerian people” on Sunday and called a Nov. 16 nationwide strike that they said would target oil exports. Union leaders said the firm planned to take the country’s white-collar oil union to court today in an attempt to prevent it from striking.
China: Town under martial law
Martial law has been imposed on a town in central China after rioting killed at least four people and injured an unknown number, Langchenggang residents said today. One resident said at least four people were killed in the violence that erupted Friday. Residents could not confirm a report by The New York Times on its Web site that as many as 148 people had been killed.
Japan: No injuries in aftershocks
Two moderate earthquakes, a magnitude temblor 5.0 followed by a 4.0, rattled a rural part of Niigata prefecture, still recovering from last month’s magnitude 6.8 earthquake, the Meteorological Agency said Monday. No injuries were reported.
Russia: Chechen warlord’s warning
Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev, who claimed responsibility for last month’s Beslan school hostage-taking, which left more than 330 people dead, warned Sunday that he was ready to fight Russia for a decade and insisted civilians remained a fair target.
Italy: Tide waters flood Venice
Unusually high tides sent sea water sweeping through Venice on Sunday, covering 80 percent of the city by afternoon. St. Mark’s Square and other famous locations were inundated, forcing tourists and residents alike to don rubber boots and use elevated walkways.
Liberia: U.N. troops arrest dozens
Armed U.N. troops arrested dozens of men Sunday in an sometimes bloody conclusion to a countrywide disarmament program. In one neighborhood, about 80 men and boys lay on the ground surrounded by U.N. Ghanaian and Nigerian peacekeepers after one of several U.N. raids. Their ragged clothes were bloodstained and their wounds bleeding from what they said was the violence of their arrests.
Ukraine: Runoff for president
Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych took the lead today in Ukraine’s presidential election with about 46 percent of the vote, according to partial results, but that was not enough to avoid a runoff on Nov. 21. With nearly 50 percent of the precincts counted from Sunday’s vote, the main challenger, opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko, had nearly 33.5 percent, the Central Elections Commission said.
Uruguay: Leftist winning election
Leftist candidate Tabare Vazquez declared victory in Uruguay’s presidential election Sunday after exit polls showed him surging past two rivals with a majority of the votes. If confirmed by official election returns, the 64-year-old Vazquez will become the first leftist president in Uruguayan history.
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