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ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Detained Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan said he took the blame four years ago for passing atomic secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya in order to "save his country". Khan, who has been under effective house arrest since confessing on television in 2004 to running a proliferation network, added that the country's new government had not yet contacted him about his possible release. Khan was pardoned by President Pervez Musharraf after his confession but has remained in detention. Musharraf denied any state involvement in Khan's activities but has rejected international requests to quiz the scientist....

The Pakistani scientist disgraced for selling nuclear secrets to Iran, North Korea and Libya has been hospitalized after complaining of weakness, the military said Wednesday. Medics who checked on Abdul Qadeer Khan at his home Tuesday found that he was suffering from low blood pressure and fever, probably due to an infection, a military statement said. He was subsequently admitted to a hospital for a detailed examination, it said. Doctors are hopeful that Khan will make a full recovery and return home in a couple of days.

MAHMUDIYA, Iraq, Sept 5 (AFP) - An Iraqi nuclear scientist has been assassinated in the Sunni Muslim insurgent bastion of Mahmudiya, south of Baghdad, his brother told AFP Sunday. Mohammed Toki Hussein al-Talakani, who had practised nuclear physics since 1984, was shot dead on Saturday as he was driving in Mahmudiya, Alaa Toki Hussein said. The 40-year-old scientist lived in the small town of Al-Kifl, some 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of the capital. Another man was killed in the town on Sunday during clashes between insurgents and Iraqi forces, while a woman was also wounded, the head of the...

A Shia nuclear scientist said to be close to Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani is emerging as one of the frontrunners to become the new prime minister of Iraq. Hussain Shahristani spent a decade in Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison for defying former dictator Saddam Hussein's command to turn his scientific expertise to the development of nuclear weapons. Lakhdar Brahimi, United Nations special envoy, and Robert Blackwill, a Bush administration official, are still finalising the composition of the new Iraqi government. Officials say that balancing the communal, religious and ethnic groups within the new government is proving difficult and fluid, and caution that...

<p>In the year since Saddam Hussein was deposed, insurgents have killed nine former Iraqi weapons officials. All had been questioned by the Iraq Survey Group (ISG); at least two had been cooperating with it. Last October, ISG head David Kay said that one scientist was killed because "he was engaged in discussions with us." The most recent victim was Majid Hussein Ali, a well-known nuclear scientist. He took two bullets to the back in February.</p>

'Parlor Maid' tarnishes FBI Details of Leung-Smith spy case throw bureau's handling of investigation into question Details of Leung-Smith spy case throw bureau's handling By Ian Hoffman, STAFF WRITER Twelve years ago, a team of U.S. counterintelligence operatives flew into frigid southern Manchuria to assess Chinese spying on American diplomats. Instead, the U.S. agents came to believe their own team was tracked by China's Ministry of State Security every step of their mission, which is still classified today. The first clue was an odd elevator encounter in remote northeast China, an FBI agent bumping into a California nuclear-weapons scientist suspected...

WASHINGTON – As the Pakistani nuclear proliferation story widens, U.S. intelligence officials say top atomic scientists from that country met with Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar in Afghanistan. Two former senior Pakistani nuclear scientists who were based in the Afghan town of Kandahar met Mullah Omar and Osama bin Laden several times before the fall of the Taliban. They were later detained and questioned on their return to Pakistan. Last week, after it became clear that Pakistan was the center of what has become known internationally as the "nuclear bazaar," President Pervez Musharraf agreed to pardon nuclear scientist Abdul...

<p>ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - The father of Pakistan's nuclear weapons program and a top aide had black market contacts that supplied sensitive technology to Iran and Libya, and both have failed to account for funds in their bank accounts, intelligence officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.</p>

Abdul Qadeer Khan, who has been questioned in Pakistan over possible transfers of nuclear technology to Iran, is regarded as a national hero for helping his country become a nuclear state. Dr Khan played the key role in developing Pakistan's nuclear military capability, which culminated in successful tests in May 1998. Coming shortly after similar tests by India, Dr Khan's work helped seal Pakistan's place as the world's seventh nuclear power and sparked national jubilation. In March 2001 he was promoted to the inner circle of the country's military leadership as special science and technology adviser to President Pervez Musharraf....