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| Paper airplane virtuoso tests record aloft TOKYO (AP) -- In the world of competitive paper airplane throwing, a 20-second flight is exceptional, 25 or better is world class.... hosted.ap.org |
Iran 'working on nuclear weapon design' Washington believes Tehran working on weapon design despite spy reports that programme has endedThe US believes the official intelligence assessment of Iran's nuclear programme is wrong and Tehran is working on the design of a nuclear weapon, it was reported today.Washington is seeking support for new sanctions against Iran at the UN security council following the expiry of a new year deadline, imposed by the US president, Barack Obama, for Tehran to respond to an offer of economic help and improved diplomatic relations in return for curbing its nuclear programme.Washington is distancing itself from a controversial National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), produced by several US spy agencies in 2007, which suggested Iran had suspended work on weapons design four years earlier."After reviewing new documents that have leaked out of Iran and debriefing defectors lured to the west, Mr Obama's advisers say they believe the work on weapons design is continuing on a smaller scale – the same assessment reached by Britain, France, Germany and Israel," the New York Times reported.The key sources of new intelligence are likely to include two recent Iranian defectors – Ali Reza Asgari, a Revolutionary Guards general who vanished in Istanbul in 2007, and Shahram Amiri, a leading Iranian nuclear scientist, who disappeared while on a pilgrimage to Mecca last summer.The Iranian government has blamed the US for their disappearance.However, the Obama administration believes there is still time to try sanctions as a means of stemming Iran's nuclear ambitions.It feels there is scope for them to work because of serious technical problems in the country's uranium enrichment programme and because the regime is distracted by continuing political unrest.A report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, published late last year, recorded a significant decline in the number of working centrifuges at the enrichment plant in Natanz.Experts said this could be a result of the technical shortcomings in the Pakistani centrifuge design Iran bought from the rogue nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan and also because of a covert sabotage campaign by the west.Iran – which denies having any ambitions to acquire nuclear weapons – currently has enough low enriched uranium to make a single bomb if it was further enriched to weapons grade purity.Western officials have said it would take more than a year for the Tehran to accumulate enough for even a small arsenal."For now, the Iranians don't have a credible breakout option, and we don't think they will have one for at least 18 months, maybe two or three years," a senior Obama administration official told the New York Times.The newspaper also quoted a senior Israeli diplomat in Washington as saying that Israel was prepared to put military options on hold for the time being."Obama has convinced us that it's worth trying the sanctions, at least for a few months," the diplomat said.Obama administrationUnited StatesBarack ObamaIranNuclear weaponsUnited NationsJulian Borgerguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Cantonas toasted as Eric debuts on stage Former Manchester United star takes challenging role in new theatre drama directed by his wifeShe is a thoroughbred of the Parisian artistic elite: an award-winning actress who trained at the Conservatoire, joined the Comédie Française and has been directed by some of France's thespian greats in plays by Racine and Victor Hugo.Her husband is a temperamental former footballer who abandoned France but became the doyen of one of the world's sporting institutions.Together they are M and Mme Eric Cantona and, armed with her intellectual pedigree and his maverick celebrity, they are taking Paris by storm. Later this month, in the illustrious surrounds of the Théâtre Marigny on the Champs-Elysées, the footballer-turned-film star will make his theatre debut in a play directed by Rachida Brakni, his wife, whom he met on a film set in 2002. Keen for a repeat of his critically acclaimed performance in Ken Loach's Looking for Eric, the French media have already billed the play as one of the "theatrical events" of 2010.Cantona says he is thrilled at the prospect of performing once again in "real time" in front of a live audience. What he wanted from the theatre, he explained on prime-time television last week, was "a relationship, a real excitement, a direct relationship with people"."If he is apprehensive he doesn't show it," Brakni, 32, told the Observer. "He is someone who is inspired by a challenge. He sets the bar very high and so do I."But critics have warned there is plenty in the venture to be apprehensive about. Face au paradis (Faced with Paradise) is an untested contemporary play written by Nathalie Saugeon. Cantona's role in it is highly demanding – especially for a theatrical novice. Playing one of only two characters, opposite upcoming young star Lorà nt Deutsch, he will be on stage engaged in intensive dialogue for the duration.Joëlle Gayot, theatre critic for France Culture radio, said the project was laden with risks and the part would leave him "enormously exposed". But, she said, the public would appreciate the fact that he had put himself on the line."I think people like him because he takes risks," she said. "I don't think the critics will go to annihilate him."For Brakni, however, who leapt on the play after having searched for a part that would suit her husband, the risk is a meticulously calculated one. "I wanted to find him a part that would measure up to his talents," she said. "Eric is a very demanding person. He is someone of great rigour, great discipline and great talent."When he first returned from England, having retired from Manchester United in 1997, such a summary of Cantona's abilities would have been greeted with hilarity. The French may have begrudgingly and belatedly accepted that the boy from Marseille had talent on the pitch, but off it he was viewed as something of a buffoon with a southern accent that Parisian commentators liked to mock.But after a string of cinematic appearances, Cantona, 43, is finally persuading the French that his artistic gifts extend beyond the confines of a football pitch. Not only can he act, they discovered, but he has cultivated for himself an image as a 21st-century Renaissance man. Last month saw the release of a book of his photography on behalf of the Abbé Pierre Foundation for the world's poor and homeless.His role as sociopolitical critic has been reinforced by a denunciation of Nicolas Sarkozy and, most recently, the president's controversial debate on "national identity", which Cantona condemned as idiotic.This political vigour and cultural recognition has allowed the man who not so long ago was shut out of French society to engineer his way back in. Amid the shower of praise that rained down on him in the wake of the release of Loach's film last year, Le Point magazine remarked: "When so many 'retired' sportsmen try and fail to do something else, Cantona deserves his reputation as an artist."Ahead of the play's opening night on 26 January, critics are speculating about how successful the new Parisian power couple's joint venture will be. "Maybe he'll come a cropper, maybe he won't," said Gayot. "I personally don't think he will because he's got a presence, a fragility. He's not Depardieu, but he does have something."FranceTheatreLizzy Daviesguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Year one quiz Test yourself on the 12 months of the Obama presidency news.bbc.co.uk |
Court eases business, union election spending rule WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court threw out a 63-year-old law designed to restrain the influence of big business and unions on elections Thursday, ruling that corporations may spend as freely as they like to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress. The decision could drastically alter who gives and gets hundreds of millions of dollars in this year's crucial midterm elections.... hosted.ap.org |