US, Russia bridge differences on Iran at nuke meet

U.S. Alternate Permanent Representative to the United Nations Robert Wood arrives for the International Atomic Energy Agency's, IAEA, board of governors meeting at the International Center in Vienna, Austria, Tuesday Sept. 11, 2012. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)

Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), waves as he arrives for the IAEA board of governors meeting in Vienna, Austria, Monday, Sept. 10, 2012. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)

VIENNA (AP) — The United States and its Western allies have persuaded Russia and China to support a resolution critical ofIran's nuclear defiance in hope of showing Israel that diplomacy is an alternative to military force in pressuring Tehran, diplomats said Wednesday.

The resolution, which demands that Iran stop activities that could be used to make nuclear arms, cannot be enforced by the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency, even if approved by vote or consensus as expected Thursday. But with Israel increasingly floating force as an alternative to failed international efforts to curtail suspected Iranian nuclear activities, the document is significant in seeking to show world-power resolve in pursuing a diplomatic solution to the standoff.

Israel views a nuclear-armed Iran as a mortal threat, citing Iran's persistent calls for the destruction of the Jewish state, its development of missiles capable of striking Israel, and Iranian support for Arab militant groups.

Tehran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. But it refuses foreign offers of reactor fuel if it stops making its own through uranium enrichment — a process that worries the international community because it could also be used to arm nuclear warheads.

Concerns also focus on IAEA suspicions that Iran has worked secretly on nuclear arms — allegations Iran dismisses as based on fabricated U.S. and Israeli intelligence.

With fears growing over the possibility of Israeli military attack and other diplomatic efforts on Iran deadlocked, diplomats told The Associated Press that a resolution supported by the six powers seeking to engage Tehran on its nuclear program had become a priority discussed at the highest level.

The text was agreed on only after consultations involving U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and her counterparts in Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, said the diplomats, who demanded anonymity because the negotiating process was confidential.

While the four Western powers had no differences, it was unclear until Wednesday whether Russia and China — which Iran has relied on to blunt harsh U.N. and other sanctions — would agree to join in backing the resolution. The diplomats said that they were persuaded largely with the argument that a signal of big-power unity had to be sent to Israel.

A Russian diplomat refused on Wednesday to discuss how the accord about the resolution came about.

Russia and China have been inconsistent in backing such Western efforts in the past. While joining in a critical resolution at an IAEA meeting in November, they refused to do so in June.

That unity came at a price for the West, however, which had to settle for compromise language in the current text, made available to The AP outside the closed meeting.

While expressing "serious concern" over continued Iranian uranium enrichment in defiance of the U.N. Security Council, the six nations say they back the "inalienable right" of countries that have signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. That is a bow to arguments by Iran, an NPT signatory that it has a right to enrich.

The resolution "stresses" that the IAEA has not reported any nuclear material missing from Iran sites it is monitoring. Missing material could mean that Tehran is using it elsewhere for weapons purposes.

It only "notes" that the agency cannot conclude there is no hidden nuclear activity going on because of "lack of cooperation" by Iran on agency requests that it be given greater powers to monitor the country.

Washington considers any signal to Israel that diplomacy is working crucial amid signs of increased jitters by the Jewish state about Tehran's nuclear progress.

Most recently, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized what he said was the world's failure to spell out what would provoke a U.S.-led military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. The comments came in response to U.S. refusals in recent days to set "red lines" for Tehran.

Israeli officials say American politics do not factor into their thinking, but that the sense of urgency is so grave that the world cannot hold its breath until after the U.S. presidential election in November.

"The world tells Israel, 'Wait. There's still time,'" Netanyahu said Tuesday. "And I say: 'Wait for what? Wait until when?' Those in the international community who refuse to put red lines before Iran don't have a moral right to place a red light before Israel."

Also Tuesday, diplomats told The Associated Press that the U.N. atomic agency has received new and significant intelligence over the past month that Iran has advanced its work on calculating the destructive power of an atomic warhead through a series of computer models within the past three years.

The diplomats who spoke to the AP said the information came from Israel, the United States and at least two other Western countries. They demanded anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss classified information member countries make available to the IAEA.

Obama denies snubbing Netanyahu amid chill

By Olivier Knox, Yahoo! News | The Ticket – 17 hrs ago

Obama meets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the UN in 2011. (Reuters)

UPDATE 9:32 p.m. EDT: The White House denied late Tuesday that President Barack Obama had snubbed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by rejecting his request for a meeting when he comes to the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York in late September. A spokesman confirmed an Israeli news reports that the two leaders would not meet but cited the president's uncertain and hectic election-year schedule.

"Contrary to previous press reports, there was never any request for a meeting between the Prime Minister and President in Washington, nor was this request ever denied," U.S. National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor told reporters by email.

(Obama and Netanyahu later spoke by telephone for an hour "as a part of their ongoing consultations," the White House said. "The two leaders discussed the threat posed by Iran's nuclear program, and our close cooperation on Iran and other security issues. President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu reaffirmed that they are united in their determination to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, and agreed to continue their close consultations going forward," it said in a statement).

Vietor's comments and the conversation came after Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported that the White House had turned down a request for talks. Haaretz said Netanyahu had asked Obama for a meeting during his stay in the United States and expressed a willingness to come to Washington to do so. Earlier, when asked about that report, Vietor had said that the two leaders would not meet.

"The President arrives in New York for the UN on Monday, September 24 and departs on Tuesday, September 25. The Prime Minister doesn't arrive in New York until later in the week," Vietor said.

"They're simply not in the city at the same time. But the President and PM are in frequent contact and the PM will meet with other senior officials, including Secretary Clinton, during his visit."

The Haaretz report said the request was "declined" and that this "marks a new low" in relations between Obama and Netanyahu, who has publicly criticized Washington for not taking a harder line on Iran's nuclear program. (Still, Haaretz noted that "Netanyahu will spend only two and a half days on U.S. soil" and the White House "said that at this time Obama's schedule does not allow for a meeting.")

Mitt Romney has repeatedly accused Obama of shortchanging the relationship between the U.S. and Israel.

But a knowledgeable American official stressed it wasn't personal, saying Obama's schedule was in flux and emphasizing that he doesn't anticipate the president "will have any bilats [bilateral meetings with foreign leaders] at UNGA [the U.N. General Assembly] this year."

Still, Obama reportedly planned to appear on David Letterman on Sept. 18, the first day of the annual diplomatic gathering.

Republican Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham criticized Obama for not sitting down with Netanyahu, describing themselves as "surprised and disappointed."

Somali president, Kenyan FM escape bomb attack

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somalia's new President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and the visiting Kenyan foreign minister escaped unharmed on Wednesday from an apparent suicide bomb attack on a Mogadishu hotel where they were holding a news conference, witnesses said.

The attack, in which two explosions shook the Somali capital, underscored the huge security challenges facing Mohamud after the first presidential vote in Somalia in decades which raised hopes for change after 20 years of violent anarchy.

A Reuters witness said two bodies could be seen outside the hotel, one of whom appeared to be a suicide bomber, and there was a large crater in the road.

Mohamud and Kenyan Foreign Affairs Minister Sam Ongeri continued the news conference for several minutes after the blasts.

"First and foremost we will address the security issue. Priority number one is security and priority number two and priority number three," Mohamud said moments after the blasts.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility. On Tuesday, however, al Qaeda-linked Somali militants branded Mohamud a "traitor" and vowed to continue their jihad against a government they say serves only Western interests.

Mohamud's election by Somali lawmakers was hailed by his supporters as a vote for change in the war-ridden Horn of Africa country that has lacked effective central government since 1991.

China sends patrol ships to islands held by Japan

Associated Press/Ng Han Guan - A Chinese man holds up a piece of paper with the words " Diaoyu island belongs to China, Japanese get out" as he protests with others outside the Japanese embassy in Beijing, China Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012. Chinese government ships are patrolling near contested East China Sea islands in a show of anger after Tokyo moved to assert its control in the area. Beijing warned Monday that Japan would suffer unspecified consequences if Tokyo purchased the islands from private owners, as it formally did Tuesday.(AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

Deaths in factory fires in Pakistan up to 314

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) — The death toll from a pair of devastating factory fires that broke out in Pakistan's two biggest cities rose on Wednesday to 314 people, many of whom perished because they were unable to escape buildings that lacked emergency exits and basic safety equipment such as alarms and sprinklers.

The horrific toll highlights the atrocious state of industrial safety in Pakistan, where many factories are set up illegally in the country's densely populated cities, and owners often pay officials bribes to ignore safety violations.

The more deadly of the two blazes, which both erupted on Tuesday night, was at a garment factory in the southern city of Karachi, the country's economic heart.

The death toll there rose to 289 people Wednesday, as firefighters battled the flames for hours, said senior government officialRoshan Ali Sheikh. It was one of the worst industrial accidents in Pakistan's 65-year history, and Sheikh said the death toll could rise because rescue workers were still pulling bodies out from the site in Karachi.

Most of the deaths were caused by suffocation as people caught in the basement were unable to escape when it filled with smoke, said the top firefighter in Karachi, Ehtisham-ud-Din.

The building only had one accessible exit, and all the other doors were locked, said Sheikh.

"It is a criminal act to lock the emergency exit doors, and we are trying to know who did it, and why?" Sheikh said.

Relatives of the victims said the factory owner locked the exit doors in response to a recent theft, thereby endangering the workers inside.

"The owner of the factory should also be burned to death the way our dear ones have died in a miserable condition," said Nizam-ud-Din, whose nephew died in the fire.

Workers on higher floors of the five-story building struggled to make it out of windows that were covered with metal bars. Many were injured when they jumped from the building, including a 27-year-old pregnant woman who was injured in the fall.

Another injured factory worker, Mohammad Ilyas, speaking from the hospital, said he was working with roughly 50 other men and women on one of the floors when suddenly a fireball came from the staircase.

"I jumped from my seat as did others and rushed toward the windows, but iron bars on the windows barred us from escaping. Some of us quickly took tools and machines to break the iron bars," he said. "That was how we managed to jump out of the windows down to the ground floor."

His leg was injured in the fall.

Others weren't so lucky. An Associated Press reporter saw a charred body partially hanging out one of the factory's barred windows. It appeared the victim tried to escape but couldn't make it through the bars.

"There were no safety measures taken in the building design. There was no emergency exit. All the people got trapped," said senior police official Amjad Farooqi.

The factory's managers have fled and are being sought by police, Sheikh said, who is the senior government official in Karachi. He added that authorities have placed the name of the factory's owner on the list of people who are not allowed to leave the country.

Also on Tuesday night, a fire swept through a four-story shoe factory in the eastern city of Lahore, killing 25 people. Some died from burns and others from suffocation, said senior police officer Multan Khan.

The factory was illegally set up in a residential part of the city. The fire broke out when people in the building were trying to start their generator after the electricity went out. Sparks from the generator made contact with chemicals used to make the shoes, igniting the blaze.

Pakistan faces widespread blackouts, and many people use generators to provide electricity for their houses or to run businesses.

One of the workers, Muhammad Shabbir, said he had been working at the factory for six months along with his cousin. He said all the chemicals and the generator were located in the garage, which was also the only way out of the building. When the fire ignited, there was no way to escape.

Shabbir said he had just gone outside the factory when the fire started, but his cousin was inside and was severely burned. He died at the hospital.

A firefighter at the scene, Numan Noor, said the reason most of the victims died was because the main escape route was blocked.

"The people went to the back side of the building but there was no access, so we had to make forceful entries and ... rescue the people," Noor said.

Firefighters broke holes in the factory's brick walls to reach victims inside. At the morgue, bodies were lined up on a hallway floor, covered with white sheets.

Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf expressed his shock and grief over the deaths in the two cities.

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