France condemns Iran nuclear move

The reactor building at the Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power plant in southern Iran on October 26.NEW: Tehran insists that its nuclear program is peacefulThe French Foreign Ministry says Tuesday's announcement by Iran flouts U.N. resolutionsParis is calling on Tehran to "suspend its sensitive activities"British official said last month Iran is secretly testing missiles

Tehran, Iran (CNN) -- The French Foreign Ministry condemned Tuesday the Iranian government's announcement that it was installing a new generation of centrifuges in its nuclear facilities, describing it as "a new wave of provocation" that flouts United Nations resolutions.

"This is yet another violation of the six Security Council resolutions and the 10 IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) Board of Governors resolutions," the ministry said in a statement. "On top of the announcements that it plans to triple the production of uranium enriched to 20%, it clearly confirms the suspicions of the IAEA and the international community regarding the purpose of a program without any credible civilian objective."

The French Foreign Ministry called on Tehran to "suspend its sensitive activities."

The ministry was reacting to the announcement earlier in the day by a spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry, who said the country is installing a new generation of centrifuges in its nuclear facilities. The announcement was reported by the state-run IRNA news agency.

The spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, "stressed the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear activities, saying that all Iran's nuclear activities were carried out under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency," IRNA said.

Iran has been carrying out covert tests of missiles capable of delivering a nuclear payload, in contravention of a U.N. resolution, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said last month.

It has also said it wants to enrich uranium to "levels far greater than is needed for peaceful nuclear energy," Hague said.

Iran's development of missile and nuclear fuel technology has led to U.N. sanctions and accusations from the United States that the clerical regime is trying to develop nuclear weapons.

Iran says it has a right to peaceful nuclear technology, but the IAEA has said it cannot verify whether the intent of Tehran's nuclear program remains peaceful.

Enriched uranium can be used for civilian nuclear purposes, but also to make atomic weapons.

The IAEA raised concerns in February that Iran was not engaging with the agency on claims that it was developing a nuclear payload for its missiles.

The IAEA report discussed possible nuclear activities tied to Iran's military "including activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile."

The United States imposed new sanctions on Iran last month, targeting the country's national airline, Iran Air, other companies and international business executives accused of illicitly building up Tehran's military.

Iran has condemned those sanctions in a letter to the United Nations, saying the international body had a responsibility to look out for "nations who are merely endeavoring to attain their legitimate and undeniable rights under international law."

The United Nations passed a fourth round of sanctions against Iran in June 2010, aimed at pressuring it to suspend its nuclear program.

Journalist Shirzad Bozorgmehr contributed to this report.

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Venezuela condemns US human trafficking report (AP)

CARACAS, Venezuela – Venezuela has condemned a U.S. State Department report that lists the country among those failing to combat human trafficking.

Venezuela's Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday that the government will begin an investigation to "determine the responsibility" of U.S. Embassy officials in preparing such reports. It said such work would go beyond the normal diplomatic functions for which U.S. Embassy officials are accredited.

The statement came a day after the U.S. State Department included Venezuela among 23 nations that it said are failing to meet minimum international standards to combat human trafficking.

The State Department said that some Venezuelan women and girls are subjected to sex trafficking and forced prostitution, and that Venezuela is also a transit country for people from other countries who may be subjected to sexual exploitation and forced labor.

The Foreign Ministry said President Hugo Chavez's government "repudiates the hypocritical attitude of the government of the United States."

"That country holds the world record of trafficking in people, especially people from Latin America whose fundamental rights are violated systematically by authorities," the Foreign Ministry said.

Chavez has long been embroiled in tensions with Washington. Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said earlier this month that relations with the U.S. are frozen and that Venezuela sees no possibility of improving them.

Relations have grown particularly strained since the State Department imposed sanctions last month on the state oil company Petroleos de Venezuela SA for shipping fuel to Iran.

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Aussie parliament condemns Malaysia refugee deal (AP)

CANBERRA, Australia – Prime Minister Julia Gillard said her government will forge ahead with a proposed refugee swap deal with Malaysia despite the Australian parliament condemning the policy in a rare show of defiance Thursday.

Australia wants to send 800 asylum seekers to Malaysia in return for Australia resettling 4,000 registered refugees from among the 93,000 languishing in that Southeast Asian nation, which has not signed the U.N. Convention on Refugees and has been criticized for their harsh treatment.

The aim is to deter asylum seekers from coming to Australia by boat.

A motion condemning the policy was passed by the House of Representatives with the support of two key lawmakers whose support Gillard's Labor Party relies on to stay in power. The Senate passed the same motion in May.

The Greens party lawmaker Adam Bandt, who proposed the motion Thursday, said it is the first time in the 110-year history of Australia's federal parliament that both chambers have condemned a government policy. That claim could not be immediately verified Thursday.

But while embarrassing for the government, the motion does not force the government to change it plans.

Gillard's government commands a single-seat majority in the House of Representatives with the support of Bandt and three independent lawmakers. But her fragile government does not need to pass laws to implement the deal with Malaysia so does not need the parliament's endorsement of the plan.

Gillard said the policy was necessary to stop an increasing number of asylum seekers from paying people smugglers to bring them by boat from transit points in Malaysia and Indonesia.

"I intend pursuing the discussions of the Malaysia agreement to finality and then I intend to implement it because I intend to break the business model of the people smugglers," she told Parliament.

The plan, first announced last month, has been criticized by rights advocates including the U.N. human rights commissioner.

The government has promised that the deal will have the endorsement of the U.N. refugee agency UNHRC.

Australia has sent a delegation to Geneva to discuss details of the plan with UNHCR officials.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen played down media suggestions that the visit could indicate that UNHCR support for the deal is collapsing.

"It's singularly unsurprising that there might be a meeting in Geneva as well as a meeting in Kuala Lumpur and elsewhere as we sort out finer details," Bowen told Sky News television on Thursday.

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UN chief Ban Ki-moon condemns Syria violence (AP)

BRASILIA, Brazil – U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday called on Syria's president to stop the bloodshed in his country and engage in dialogue before it's too late.

Since protests began in Syria in March against more than four decades of rule by President Bashar Assad's family, about 1,400 civilians have been killed, according to human rights activists there.

Speaking to journalists in Brazil, his last stop in a South America tour that included Colombia, Argentina and Uruguay, Ban called on Syria's president to "stop killing people" and told reporters that he'd urged Assad to "engage in inclusive dialogue and to take bold measures before it's too late."

While the U.N. Security Council authorized military action to protect civilians in Libya, Russia and China are opposed to a much milder resolution that would condemn Syria for its deadly crackdown on protesters and demand an immediate end to the violence.

The resolution's sponsors — Britain, France, Germany and Portugal — say they have the minimum nine "yes" votes to adopt the measure, but are seeking additional support from Brazil, South Africa and India. Diplomats say the extra support could persuade Russia and China to abstain rather than veto.

At U.N. headquarters in New York, France's U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud said what happens next "will be decided at the highest political level in the capitals."

"We still do think that the council has to react," Araud told reporters. "The situation is not improving. The situation is worsening, and we do think that the council should express itself, and we regret that it has not done so far."

In Brazil, Ban also promised that the U.N. would work to ensure the success of next year's U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development, known as Rio+20, to be held in Brazil next year. Failure to agree on a global framework for dealing with climate change and ensuring manageable growth will have drastic consequences, he said.

"We are now facing food security, energy security, water scarcity and health issues," he said. "All these issues are interlinked. We need to connect the dots, look at the issues in a more comprehensive way."

Brazil hosted the first international summit about the environment in 1992, setting the parameters for future debates on climate change. The conference scheduled for June 2012, two decades later, will seek to renew international commitment to manageable growth.

___

Associated Press writers Juliana Barbassa in Rio de Janeiro and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

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Aussie parliament condemns Malaysian refugee deal (AP)

CANBERRA, Australia – Prime Minister Julia Gillard said her government will forge ahead with a proposed referee swap deal with Malaysia despite the Australian parliament condemning the policy in a rare show of defiance Thursday.

Australia wants to send 800 asylum seekers to Malaysia in return for Australia resettling 4,000 registered refugees from among the 93,000 languishing in that Southeast Asian nation, which has not signed the U.N. Convention on Refugees and has been criticized for their harsh treatment.

The aim is to deter asylum seekers from coming to Australia by boat.

A motion condemning the policy was passed by the House of Representatives with the support of two key lawmakers whose support Gillard's Labor Party relies on to stay in power. The Senate passed the same motion in May.

The Greens party lawmaker Adam Bandt, who proposed the motion Thursday, said it is the first time in the 110-year history of Australia's federal parliament that both chambers have condemned a government policy. That claim could not be immediately verified Thursday.

But while embarrassing for the government, the motion does not force the government to change it plans.

Gillard's government commands a single-seat majority in the House of Representatives with the support of Bandt and three independent lawmakers. But her fragile government does not need to pass laws to implement the deal with Malaysia so does not need the parliament's endorsement of the plan.

Gillard said the policy was necessary to stop an increasing number of asylum seekers from paying people smugglers to bring them by boat from transit points in Malaysia and Indonesia.

"I intend pursuing the discussions of the Malaysia agreement to finality and then I intend to implement it because I intend to break the business model of the people smugglers," she told Parliament.

The plan, first announced last month, has been criticized by rights advocates including the U.N. human rights commissioner.

The government has promised that the deal will have the endorsement of the U.N. refugee agency UNHRC.

Australia has sent a delegation to Geneva to discuss details of the plan with UNHCR officials.

Immigration Minister Chris Bowen played down media suggestions that the visit could indicate that UNHCR support for the deal is collapsing.

"It's singularly unsurprising that there might be a meeting in Geneva as well as a meeting in Kuala Lumpur and elsewhere as we sort out finer details," Bowen told Sky News television on Thursday.

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U.N. condemns violence in Sudan

Marchers protest against the government's military occupation of the Abyei region in southern Sudan.Northern and southern Sudan claim the region of AbyeiThe United Nations wants the north to withdraw its troopsSouthern Sudan plans to secede in July

United Nations (CNN) -- The U.N. Security Council on Friday condemned the violence in the disputed Sudanese region of Abyei and called on the government in the north to pull out its troops.

"The council demands that the government of Sudan withdraw immediately from the Abyei area," the statement said.

The council called on both parties to adhere to the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which ended two decades of Sudanese civil war.

The north has occupied Abyei for about two weeks. Both sides claim the territory in anticipation of southern Sudan's planned secession from the north on July 9.

The council condemns all unilateral actions aimed at swaying the negotiations, the statement said.

On Tuesday, Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman, the Sudanese ambassador to the United Nations, said Sudanese forces for the government based in the north have been exercising restraint.

"We went to Abyei to put the house in order and to the stop any violation by the SPLA (Sudan People's Liberation Army) creating havoc by the armed forces in Abyei," he said. "We immediately declared that our presence there is temporary. We are not going to stay indefinitely in Abyei."

For his part, Ezekiel Gatkuoth, the representative of the Southern Sudanese Mission in United States, urged the Security Council to focus on the situation in his country.

"We are asking the world to intervene immediately so that our people, who were displaced from Abyei, are assisted," he said.

The Security Council statement was read by the ambassador of Gabon to the United Nations, Nelson Messone. That country holds the presidency of the Security Council this month.

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EU condemns Syria's 'repression'

Group calls on those responsible to be held accountableEU expresses concern about "mass arrests, intimidations ... torture"State-run news agency: ''Syria deplores and condemns the conclusions"

(CNN) -- The Council of the European Union condemned Monday "in the strongest terms the ongoing repression in Syria" and the violence meted out by military and security forces to peaceful protesters, which have led to hundreds of casualties.

Meeting in Brussels, Belgium, the council adopted conclusions that call for those responsible to be held accountable and called on Syrian leaders to grant access to representatives of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

"The EU is deeply concerned at continuing mass arrests, intimidations and instances of torture and calls for their immediate halt," the council said. It also called for the release of those arrested for participating in peaceful protests and of all political prisoners and human rights defenders.

"Syria must abide by its international commitments, in particular its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and uphold the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression," it said.

The condemnation came amid new reports of protests in Syria, where the government of President Bashar al-Assad has unleashed his security forces on protests against his rule in several cities. Witnesses reported checkpoints going up in central Damascus as police broke up demonstrations in the capital and in the northern city of Homs on Monday.

The EU Council expressed concern about the refusal of Syrian authorities to let international journalists report freely inside the country and condemned "the arrests and intimidations of Syrian journalists by the authorities."

The union said further that it was "deeply troubled" by the military closure of such cities as Daraa, Banias and Homs and by reports that those in need don't have ready access to medical treatments and basic services.

In response, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency, citing "an official source in the name of the Syrian Arab Republic," said ''Syria deplores and condemns the conclusions issued by the EU against it and its people while Syria seeks to preserve its security and stability and to get engaged in a comprehensive national dialog that leads to completing the reform plans in economic, political and social fields, according to the specified national timetable.''

The source said the EU conclusions, "like those of the U.S., clearly aim at flagrant interference in Syria's internal affairs and an attempt to destabilize it and control its people's decisions and capabilities at present and in the future.''

"Today, the Europeans added a new black page to their history in our region when they took measures to provoke Mr. President Bashar al-Assad," Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said on Syrian state television. "They placed themselves against the Syrian people."

The dueling statements came a day after about 7,000 Syrians turned out to bury four people killed Saturday in Homs, about 160 kilometers (100 miles) north of Damascus.

The latest round of violence in the Syrian anti-government protests began Friday, when at least 44 people died in Homs and other cities, according to the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria. Syrian security personnel fired at demonstrators, the group said.

Protesters in Syria have been calling for government reforms and an end to political repression, part of the so-called Arab Spring, in which protests have erupted in countries throughout the Middle East and North Africa.

Syria casts the demonstrators as "terrorists" and "criminals" trying to destabilize the government. Syria also describes members of the security forces killed in the battles as "martyrs."

The Syrian Arab News Agency said Sunday that 32 "martyrs" had been killed "since the beginning of the events in Syria," and 547 had been wounded.

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Pakistan's parliament condemns U.S. raid

Bin Laden's compound is undergoing intense analysis, and U.S. officials say he enjoyed a support network in Pakistan.The Pakistani parliament threatens to cut off access to a facility used by NATO forcesA joint session of parliament adopts the resolution The resolution demands an immediate stop to drone strikesIt also demands an end to raids by U.S. troops within Pakistan's borders

(CNN) -- Pakistan's parliament threatened Saturday to cut off access to a facility used by NATO forces to ferry troops into Afghanistan, signaling a growing rift that began when U.S. commandos killed Osama bin Laden during a raid on a Pakistani compound.

A resolution adopted during a joint session of parliament condemned the U.S. action. It also called for a review of its working agreement with the U.S., demanded an independent investigation and ordered the immediate end of drone attacks along its border region.

Failure to end unilateral U.S. raids and drone attacks will force Pakistan to "to consider taking necessary steps, including withdrawal of (the) transit facility" used by the NATO's International Security Assistance Force, according to the resolution.

U.S. lawmakers have questioned how the world's most wanted terrorist managed to live in plain sight for years in Pakistan -- near the country's elite military academy -- without being detected.

Pakistani and U.S. intelligence officials have said there is no evidence that any active members of Pakistan's military or intelligence establishment knew about or actively protected the al Qaeda leader.

Publicly, leaders in both countries have downplayed a rift.

But the unanimous resolution made clear there was a growing dissatisfaction among Pakistani lawmakers.

The resolution also ordered a review of its counter-terrorism cooperation agreement with the United States.

The government is deeply "distress(ed) on the campaign to malign Pakistan, launched by certain quarters in other countries without appreciating Pakistan's determined efforts and immense sacrifices in combating terror," the resolution said.

It also said more than 30,000 Pakistani civilians and more than 5,000 military personnel had been killed in its fight against terror "and the blowback emanating from actions of the NATO/ISAF forces in Afghanistan."

Anger over U.S. drone strikes has mounted during the past year after it stepped up efforts along the Pakistani-Afghan border.

On Friday, a suspected U.S. drone strike killed four suspected Islamic militants in the Datta Khel region of North Waziristan, according to two Pakistani intelligence officials. They said an unmanned aircraft fired four missiles at a militant's vehicle on the border area.

The demands by the Pakistani civilian government come as new details emerge about the raid on bin Laden's Abbottabad compound.

Members of the U.S. Navy SEAL team that attacked the compound were wearing helmet-mounted digital cameras that recorded the mission, a U.S. military official told CNN on Friday.

The official described the digital recording as hazy, fast-moving and subject to poor lighting in the rooms. The source also said it is hard to get clear images from the footage.

"This is not movie-quality stuff," the official said.

An official familiar with the material seized from the compound said Friday that Navy SEALs recovered a stash of pornography. The official would not discuss exactly where it was found, what it was or whether it is believed to belong to the al Qaeda leader or to someone else living at the site, such as bin Laden's couriers or his son.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

Bin Laden's compound is also undergoing intense analysis, and U.S. officials say he apparently enjoyed a support network in Pakistan that allowed him to stay in one location for the past several years. He had no escape plan or means to destroy his reams and gigabytes of documents in the event of an enemy assault, according to the U.S. sources.

Two U.S. lawmakers joined a public chorus for the release of photos of bin Laden's body after seeing the images themselves.

"These are very graphic, gruesome pictures," said Rep. Doug Lamborn, a Republican from Colorado. But seeing them "gave me a sense of finality and closure."

A conservative legal watchdog group has filed the first lawsuit seeking the public release of the video and photographs of the raid and its aftermath.

Judicial Watch is asking the Department of Defense to comply with a Freedom of Information request for the material, especially photos of bin Laden's body. The legal complaint to force compliance was made in federal court in Washington on Friday.

CNN's Reza Sayah, Barbara Starr, Michael Martinez, Pam Benson and Larry Shaughnessy contributed to this report.

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