Iran 'still open to nuclear deal'

Iran's president has said that a UN-drafted uranium exchange deal remains a possibility with talks on the proposal "not yet closed".

Speaking in Tehran on Tuesday, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed the assertions of the United States and its allies that the plan was effectively dead after Iran had begun the process of further enriching uranium to 20 per cent.

"We have already announced that we are ready for a fuel exchange within a fair framework," Ahmadinejad said during the televised news conference.

"We are still ready for an exchange, even with America," he said....read more>>

Iran 'still open to nuclear deal'

Crackdown Provokes Fears for Sri Lanka's Democracy

NEW DELHI — In a part of the world better known for the interruption of democracy than its stubborn endurance, Sri Lanka has always been something of an oddity. A small country that suffered through one of the world’s nastiest recent wars, it nevertheless remained for the most part a vibrant multiparty democracy.

Last spring the government of President Mahinda Rajapaksa decisively defeated the Tamil Tiger insurgency that had terrorized Sri Lanka for the better part of three decades. Last month, voters rewarded him with a landslide victory that gave him a new term.

So it is all the more surprising that his government decided to arrest the longtime ally who became his main rival for the presidency....read more>>

Crackdown Provokes Fears for Sri Lanka's Democracy