The police in Northern Ireland say they're concerned about the escalation in attacks by dissident Republicans. A huge car bomb was left outside the headquarters of the Policing Board in Belfast on Saturday night. It caught fire but didn't explode. In a separate incident, four people were arrested after shots were fired at police. An independent commission recently warned that the paramilitary threat in Northern Ireland was at its highest level in six years. The chairman of the Policing Board, Barry Gilligan, said it wouldn't be deterred from its work.
“This attack last night was an attack upon the entire community. Because not only the 19 members of the Policing Board who work in that building, but also the staff who work in that building, they're working on behalf of the community. That's the first message. The second message is, we won't be deterred from doing that.”
A leading Iranian reformist and former vice president has been sentenced to six years in prison for organizing mass protests after the disputed presidential election in June. Mohammad Ali Abtahi is the most senior opposition leader to be sentenced so far. Jim Muir reports.
“Mr. Abtahi was one of the most familiar figures during the two terms in office of the reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, who won a landslide victory in 1997. A genial figure with a modernist term of mind, he ran his own blog and website. After Mr. Khatami' withdrawal from the election race this June, Mr. Abtahi campaigned on behalf of one of the other opposition challengers, the former Speaker of Parliament Mehdi Karroubi. He was one of the first to be arrested after the disturbance has broke out when it was announced that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won reelection with a surprisingly large majority.”
Iran has begun five days of large-scale air defense exercises to test its ability to protect its nuclear facilities from possible attack. A Revolutionary Guard commander said the exercises would show that Iran could annihilate Israeli planes if they are attacked. Israel hasn't ruled out military action to stop Iran obtaining nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is strictly for peaceful purposes.
Scientists documenting marine life in the deepest parts of the oceans said they've identified more than 17,000 species. Staff working for the Census of Marine Life said the diversity of life in the deep sea was much greater than previously believed. Madeleine Morris reports.
“Over 17,500 creatures have now been cataloged inhabiting the dark waters below depth of 200 meters where natural life barely penetrates, the majority of them never before seen. As deep as five kilometers below the surface have pressures that would crush unprotected human, scientists found mud teeming with crabs, starfish and corals. Amongst the more unusual finds were two-meter-long cirrate octopod, an eight-limed creature nicknamed 'Dumbo' because of the large elephant ear-like fins it uses to swim. Scientists also saw a jelly fish as long as a blue whale.”
World news from the BBC.
The only cosmonaut in the Soviet space program who wasn't a member of the Communist Party, Konstantin Feoktistov, has died at the age of 83. Feoktistov was a crew member on the Voskhod spacecraft in 1964, the first mission where the crew traveled without space suits. He went on to help develop the Salyuts and Progress craft and the Mir space station.
Exit polls from Romania's presidential election suggest that president Traian Basescu is narrowly ahead of his Social Democrat challenger, Mircea Geoana. Nick Thorpe reports from Bucharest.
“Exit polls released within seconds of the end of voting gave President Traian Basescu 32.8%, Mircea Geoana 31.7% and Crin Antonescu 21.8%. If these figures are confirmed by the official count, Mr. Basescu and Mr. Geoana will now face each other in the runoff on the 6th of December. Parallel to the presidential vote, a referendum to reduce the size of parliament, also looks set to succeed. A tough fight can now be expected between the two main candidates for the 3 million votes which went to other candidates today.”
The Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has arrived in the United States for talks that will cover Afghansitan, climate change and cooperation on nuclear energy. Before he left for Washington, Mr. Singh said it will be a catastrophe for much of Asia if the Taliban were victorious in Afghanistan.
Nigeria's anti-corruption agency has arrested a young man suspected of making tens of thousands of dollars in an internet fraud and then donating most of the money to his church. … allegedly conned several Germans and Americans at almost 100,000 dollars by posing as an expatriate entrepreneur in Nigeria seeking a business loan. But investigators say he gave more than 80% of the proceeds to a church in Lagos as ties and offerings.
BBC News.
