Report: Iran to enrich its uranium if talks fail

Iran will move to further enrich its uranium for a research reactor if it cannot obtain the fuel from overseas, semi-official state media reported Saturday. If talks with world powers and the United Nations nuclear watchdog fail, Iran will notify the latter that it will supply fuel for the Tehran reactor, said Ali Shirzadian, a spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran

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Ramadi, Iraq on high alert after car bombings

Iraqi authorities on Sunday closed all entrances into Ramadi and imposed a curfew after a series of car bombings killed at least 19 people and injured more than 80 others, according to Interior Ministry officials. The three — who were identified only by initials — were accused of contacts with opposition groups, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported Saturday.

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Report: Iran accuses U.S. in researcher’s disappearance

The United States is involved in the disappearance of an Iranian researcher, Iran’s state-funded media reported. Shahram Amiri, a researcher at Tehran’s Malek Ashtar University, disappeared after going to Saudi Arabia for a pilgrimage on June 4, Iran’s state-funded Press TV reported Wednesday

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U.S. plans ‘serious’ sanctions if Iran diplomacy fails

The Obama administration is working on a substantial sanctions package against Iran in case current diplomatic efforts to curb its nuclear program fail, top officials told Congress on Tuesday. Under Secretary of the Treasury Stuart Levy, who developed some of the existing financial sanctions against Iran under the Bush administration, said at a Senate Banking Committee hearing that the “comprehensive” plan would target “key vulnerabilities and fissures” in Iran to show Tehran that it would face “serious costs” for thwarting international demands.

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Jewish group’s visit sparks clashes at Jerusalem holy site

Clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli police in east Jerusalem stretched into Sunday evening after a visit by a Jewish group to one of the city’s holiest sites. Street battles began in the Old City on Sunday morning, when Palestinians praying at the site — known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif, or “Noble Sanctuary,” and to Jews as Temple Mount — began to throw rocks at the visiting Jews, said Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

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