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(Reuters) - Japan has told the U.N. nuclear wathchdog that a heightened state of alert has been declared at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant after Friday's major earthquake, the Vienna-based agency said. The International Atomic Energy Agency also said it had been told that the plant had been shut down and that no release of radiation had been detected. Japanese media reported separately that a leak was possible at the plant as water levels fell. "The IAEA is seeking further details on the situation at Fukushima Daiichi and other nuclear power plants and research reactors.

VIENNA – The U.N. nuclear monitoring agency said Friday that "recently received" information is adding to concerns Iran may have worked on developing nuclear arms. At the same time, a report by the organization — The International Atomic Energy Agency — noted that Tehran continues to stonewall its attempts to follow up on that information, which points to possible experiments with components of a nuclear arms program.

The United Nations nuclear watchdog has received new information regarding allegations of possible military aspects to Iran's disputed nuclear program, the agency said in a report. The confidential report, obtained by Reuters on Friday, listed several areas of questions the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has about Iran's atomic activities and called on Tehran to cooperate with its investigation.

VIENNA, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Syria is considering building its first nuclear power plant by 2020 to meet rapidly growing electricity demand, a document from the Arab state's Atomic Energy Commission showed. The paper posted on the website of the International Atomic Energy Agency did not say whether Syria, which is under IAEA investigation over suspected covert nuclear activity, may also contemplate making its own fuel for such a facility. Any bid by Syria to launch uranium enrichment, like its ally Iran, would likely further alarm the United States and its Western allies about Damascus' atomic activities as such material...

"One of the reasons that the revolt in Egypt is so important is what their new government's foreign policy will be. The Middle East is tumultuous at the best of times, but Egypt hasn't been a part of the fighting since 1973 with the exception of a brief skirmish with Libya in 1977. Now, it looks like Mubarak's regime will fall. Mubarak is 83 years old, and the current riots make it seem unlikely that he will hold onto power until Egypt's election this fall." http://www.rationalpublicradio.com/israel-has-peace-agreement-with-mubarak-not-with-egypt.html

TEHRAN, Oct. 4 (Xinhua) -- Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed ElBaradei said Sunday that "Israel is number one threat to Middle East" with its nuclear arms, the official IRNA news agency reported.

While the mood here at Davos has been optimistic about recovery from the global credit crisis, the consensus is that the world is far from out of the woods. Austerity and cutbacks are the buzzwords in this exclusive ski resort for this week, at least. Among those worried about funding his project in this tight environment is Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA. He is here at the World Economic Forum making the case for his agency. “We are aware of the difficulties of countries (who fund the IAEA). I need to strike a...

VIENNA — Egypt fears being grouped with the likes of Iran and Syria if a UN investigation into traces of highly enriched uranium found in the country isn't brought to a swift end, according to what officials describe as a confidential report from the country's nuclear agency. The particles — enriched close to the levels required to arm nuclear missiles — have been under investigation since being detected by the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2007 and 2008. Egypt, a US ally in the Middle East, has said the particles originated from abroad and were inadvertently imported, but the agency...

Sixty-five years after Germany's campaign to exterminate the Jews, of the many countries in the world Israel is the only one repeatedly subjected to calls for its extinction. Though Pakistan and India, like Israel and the Arabs, have suffered population exchange and territorial wars, neither questions the other's right to exist. So rare and extreme is such a position that one might think the countries of Europe, so many of which cooperated in hunting down their Jews, would do more to recognize its endemic presence in the Middle East. They don't—their publics having largely accepted that, in regard to the...

Member states of the U.N. nuclear watchdog rejected on Friday an Arab-proposed resolution calling on "nuclear-armed" Israel to join a global anti-atomic arms treaty... An assembly meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency last year approved a resolution calling on Israel to join the Non-Proliferation treaty. The general assembly of the 151-member International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) failed to pass the resolution with 51 against, 46 votes for and 23 abstentions... Several small countries, including some in Latin America such as Costa Rica and Panama, who were absent in 2009 voted against the measure this time. Like last year, Russia...

El Baradei and Chairman of Iranian Parliament, Ali Larijani Source: Al Youm Al SabehSeptember 6, 2010The Egyptian Newspaper Al Youm Al Sabeh reports: In a communication to the Attorney General of Egypt, Dr. Yasser Najib Abdel Mabboud, has accused Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, former Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency and a candidate in the Egyptian presidential elections, of receiving funds exceeding $7 million (US) from Iran’s leadership as support for ‘political reform in Egypt’.Abdul Mabboud , a candidate of the National Party and who like El Baradei is also running for the Egyptian Presidential election, was informed of the...

A former nuclear inspector for the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is warning that Iran already has the capacity to produce a nuclear bomb. Olli Heinonen revealed the information in an interview with the French Le Monde magazine on Thursday. According to Reuters, quoting the interview, Heinonen was an expert on Iran’s nuclear program during his tenure as the deputy director-general of the IAEA, heading the agency’s nuclear safeguards arm.

Iran has begun loading its first nuclear power plant in the southern city of Bushehr with fuel in an effort to provide the country with nuclear-generated electricity. Nuclear fuel is being transferred to the Bushehr reactor under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency and senior officials from Iran and Russia. The Russian-completed plant is finally being launched after years of delay. 163 fuel rods are to be transferred to the core of the plant. The fueling comes after head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi and Russian Federal Atomic Energy Agency Director Sergei Kiriyenko...

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was said to no longer be capable of functioning in his position. Diplomatic sources said Mubarak's condition has rapidly declined over the last month and his schedule was severely restricted. They said Mubarak was avoiding meetings with most non-Arab leaders to prevent leaks of his true condition. "He is a walking corpse," a senior Arab diplomat who recently attended a meeting with Mubarak said In July, the sources said, Mubarak underwent a lengthy examination at a French military hospital outside Paris. They said the examination took place amid alarm by presidential aides and close relatives over...

Iran has been able to smuggle advanced technological equipment to its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz via a complex smuggling route based in Dubai, the Sunday Telegraph reported on Sunday. According to the report, an Iranian company has purchased control systems from one of Germany's leading electronic manufacturers. The deal was negotiated with a Dubai trading company, which in turn sold Iran a range of electronic equipment for use at its enrichment facility, the British website reported. The report comes amid growing concerns that though Iran claims its nuclear program has only peaceful aims, Tehran is in fact working toward...

VIENNA SNIPPET: "VIENNA (AP) — Iran has amassed more than two tons of enriched uranium, the U.N. atomic agency said Monday in a report that heightened Western concerns about the country developing the ability to produce a nuclear weapon. Two tons of uranium would be enough for two nuclear warheads, although Iran says it does not want weapons and is only pursuing civilian nuclear energy."

Warhead making equipment was removed before IAEA inspection. VIENNA — UN nuclear inspectors revisiting an Iranian laboratory suspected of involvement in a nuclear weapons program discovered that equipment has been removed, diplomats said Friday. Senior officials within the International Atomic Energy Agency are concerned that the removal was part of a cover-up. The equipment can be used for pyroprocessing, a procedure used to purify uranium metal used in nuclear warheads.

Jerusalem is increasingly jittery that cracks are appearing in the nearly half-century-old US policy of upholding Israel’s right to maintain its “nuclear ambiguity,” following reports that Israeli nuclear capabilities are, for the first time, scheduled to be on the agenda of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) board meeting next month. One diplomatic official said that the US has relayed messages to Israel that it will not let its nuclear position be harmed, but added that these assurances are being received with some skepticism amid the realization that while in the past the US has killed such discussions in international...

Israel's secretive nuclear activities may undergo unprecedented scrutiny next month, with a key meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency tentatively set to focus on the topic for the first time, according to documents shared Friday with The Associated Press. A copy of the restricted provisional agenda of the IAEA's June 7 board meeting lists "Israeli nuclear capabilities" as the eighth item - the first time that that the agency's decision-making body is being asked to deal with the issue in its 52 years of existence. [snip] Even if dropped from the final agenda, however, its inclusion in the May...

The head of the UN atomic watchdog is asking for international input on how to persuade Israel to join the Nonproliferation Treaty........AP