World: Iran

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran has increased the number of operating centrifuges at its uranium enrichment plant to 4,000, a top official said Friday, pushing ahead with the nuclear program despite threats of new U.N. sanctions.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has 4,000 working nuclear centrifuges, an official said in remarks published on Friday, in line with a number verified by the U.N. atomic watchdog but lower than a figure cited by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran is operating about 4,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges and it is installing several thousand more, the state news agency IRNA quoted the deputy foreign minister as saying Friday.

ABUJA (AFP) - Iran is ready to share its nuclear technology with Nigeria to help the energy-starved west African powerhouse boost electricity generation, a senior Iranian official has said.

ABUJA, Nigeria - An Iranian trade delegation announced an agreement Thursday for Iran to share peaceful nuclear technology with Nigeria, to help Africa's biggest oil producer bolster its woeful electricity-generation capacity.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama could open talks with Iran on its nuclear program early next year if he wins the White House, one of his senior foreign policy advisers said on Thursday.

DUSHANBE (AFP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday blamed foreign interference as well as Tbilisi's leadership for the crisis in Georgia and called on regional powers to come to a peaceful resolution.

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran is to lop several zeros off its currency as it battles double-digit inflation, central bank vice president Hossein Ghazavi said in comments published on Thursday.

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran has hanged a man for a murder committed at the age of 15, a report said on Wednesday, the second execution in a week that violated international rights conventions.

TEHRAN (AFP) - The head of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, said on Wednesday that Israel is too vulnerable to Iran's longer-range missiles to dare launch an attack.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran could hit back at Israel with missiles if the Jewish state attacked it and could also rely on allies in the region to strike, the commander of the Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday.

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Syria's President Bashar Assad has publicly stepped up his outreach to old ally Russia in recent days, seeking aid to build up Syrian military forces and offering Moscow help in return — in an apparent effort to exploit a new Russian-American rift.

TEHRAN (AFP) - The government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday it has boosted spending to promote the Muslim holy book the Koran and revive revolutionary ideals in Iran.

DAVENPORT, Iowa - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama pledged Monday that he would step up diplomatic pressure to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons before Israel feels that "its back is against the wall" and might take military action.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said on Monday the world must increase pressure on Iran to rein in its nuclear program and avoid a situation where Israel feels cornered.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AFP) - White House hopeful Barack Obama said Monday sanctions and diplomacy must be made to bite against Iran so that Israel does not feel its "back is against the wall" and stages an attack.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The CIA recruited a family of Swiss engineers to help it thwart the Libyan and Iranian nuclear programs as well as an underground network of Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan, The New York Times reported Monday.

TEHRAN, Iran - Iranian state TV says the country has launched production of a domestically built submarine capable of firing missiles and torpedoes.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has launched a submarine production line to ensure its forces are equipped to maintain security in the vital oil shipping route, the Strait of Hormuz waterway, the defense minister said on Monday.

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran might for the first time offer production sharing contracts to develop its Caspian Sea oil fields, in a bid to attract foreign investors to a region with high exploration costs, a report said on Monday.

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's top leader strongly backed the nation's embattled president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, praising him for "standing up" to the West and urging him to plan for a second four-year term, state media reported Sunday.

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to plan on keeping the top job for a second four-year term but called on him to keep better control of inflation, official media said on Sunday.

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad against economic policies which would further fuel inflation, a press report said on Sunday.

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Israel will be targeted by thousands of rockets if it attacks Iran, a senior official in the Tehran-backed group Hezbollah said on Sunday.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has chosen the site and started designing a new 360-megawatt nuclear power plant, a senior atomic official said in remarks published on Sunday.

TEHRAN, (AFP) - An Iranian appeals court has upheld a four-year jail term handed down to a Kurdish women's rights activist, a press report said on Sunday.

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad renewed his verbal attacks on arch-foe Israel on Saturday, accusing it of dragging the world into turmoil and predicting its demise.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran plans to launch a telecommunications satellite, the president said on Saturday, using missile technology the West fears is being developed to fire nuclear warheads.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - An Iranian shipping firm is seeking to use diplomacy to secure the release of sailors from pirates who seized a bulk carrier this week, an Iranian executive said on Saturday.