UN hails Iran nuclear agreement

UN hails Iran nuclear agreement

The Arak heavy water reactor is expected to be completed by 2009

The UN's International Atomic Energy Agency says it has reached a deal with Iran to allow new inspections and safeguards at key nuclear facilities.

Tehran will allow inspectors into Arak heavy water plant and agree safeguards at its Natanz uranium enrichment plant, the UN nuclear watchdog said.

The agency's deputy director described the deal as a framework for resolving a range of nuclear issues with Iran.

Iran says its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes, not bomb-making.

The EU and US, however, accuse the Islamic republic of seeking to build nuclear weapons and have demanded it suspend its uranium enrichment activities.

The UN Security Council has imposed two rounds of sanctions on Iran for not doing so, and is now considering a third round.

The BBC's Bethany Bell, in Vienna, where the International Atomic Energy Agency is based, says a number of significant questions about its nuclear work could be cleared up if Iran holds to this deal.

However Tehran is still enriching uranium, in defiance of the UN Security Council - the key sticking point between the West and Iran, and one not dealt with by the latest agreement.

Discussions

Ollie Heinonen, the deputy director of the IAEA, announced the deal after meeting two senior Iranian negotiators in Tehran this week.

Under the terms of the deal a new team of nuclear inspectors will be put together.

Key nuclear sites

That team will then quickly granted access to the heavy water reactor plant at Arak before the end of July, Mr Heinonen said.

The head of the IAEA, Mohammed ElBaradei, has said that deals such as this will serve as a way to defuse the ongoing diplomatic crisis over Iran.

Heavy water reactors produce plutonium, which can be used in nuclear weapons as an alternative to enriched uranium.

Located some 190km (120 miles) south-west of Tehran, the reactor has long been a bone of contention between Iran and the West.

Arak was one of two Iranian nuclear facilities the existence of which was revealed by an exiled Iranian opposition group in 2002. At that stage Iran had failed to declare its existence to the IAEA.

Heavy water is used to moderate the nuclear fission chain reaction either in a certain type of reactor - albeit not the type that Iran is currently building - or produce plutonium for use in a nuclear bomb.

The project is scheduled to be completed by 2009.

The IAEA also said it had agreed with Iran on the designation of new inspectors as well as how to deal with safeguards at the Natanz uranium enrichment plant.

Huge telescope set to scour skies

Huge telescope set to scour skies
One of the world's largest optical telescopes is set to peer into space for the first time.

Installed on a 2,400m-high (7,900ft) peak on the Canary Island of La Palma, the huge telescope consists of a mirror measuring 10.4m (34.1ft) in diameter.

The Spanish-led Great Canary Telescope (GTC) is extremely powerful and will be able to spot some of the faintest, most distant objects in the Universe.

The "first light" ceremony will take place on Friday.

It would be wonderful if this telescope allowed us to detect a planet like ours Pedro Alvarez

If the initial test run is successful, GTC's team expect it to be up and running for the scientific community within the next 12 months.

The enormous array has taken seven years to construct; its installation has been hampered by poor weather and the logistical difficulties of transporting equipment to such an inaccessible location.

The project is estimated to cost 130m euros (£88m).

Another Earth?

Based at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory, the optical telescope is made up from 36 separate hexagonal mirror segments which together form the 10.4m primary mirror.

Its vast size will enable it to capture some of the most distant light in the Universe, helping researchers look for information that might help to explain the evolution of the cosmos.

It will probe far-off galaxies, look into the secrets of star formation, and hunt for Earth-like planets.

"It would be wonderful if this telescope allowed us to detect a planet like ours," project director Pedro Alvarez told the Spanish El Mundo newspaper.

Campbell Warden, the executive secretary of the Canary Islands Astrophysics Institute, told BBC News: "The big advantage of the GCT over existing telescopes... is that because of the combination of the very advanced technology and the largest optical infrared mirror we'll be able to characterise the atmospheres of planets, instead of just having, as we have at the moment, mathematical speculations of what planets could be like.

"We'll actually be able to take a much better look at them."

He added: "We'll be able to throw back the curtains that shroud the early Universe, revealing many of its mysteries."

Giant telescopes

The GTC is among the world's largest optical reflecting telescopes.

The newly opened Southern African Large Telescope (Salt) boasts a segmented primary mirror with - in the longest dimension - a diameter of 11m (36ft).

The Hobby-Eberly on Mount Fowlkes in Texas, US, also has an 11m mirror; however, the way that it works means the Keck twins in Hawaii, which have mirrors 10m (33ft) across, have a slightly larger light-collecting area.

The Salt has a mirror that is 11m in diameter

The twins can also be made to work in tandem - as a so-called interferometer - which allows them to mimic a larger telescope that is 85m (279ft) wide.

These US scopes are rivalled in power by Europe's own Very Large Telescope, sited in Chile, which includes four large mirror units (each 8.2m across) that will soon also be made to work as one.

When they do this, the VLT will mimic a telescope that is 200m (650ft) across.

The Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona, US, uses two 8.4m (27.6ft) mirrors side by side to achieve an effective 11.8m (38.7ft) diameter.

All of these scopes will be dwarfed in the next decade if plans are progressed to build facilities with mirrors that are 30-60m (100-200ft) across.

Conrad Black convicted of fraud

Media tycoon Conrad Black has been convicted of three charges of fraud and one of obstructing justice.

Black, 62, was cleared of racketeering and tax evasion but could face 35 years in jail when sentenced on 30 November. His lawyers said he would appeal.

He was facing 13 charges over claims he stole $60m (£29.5m) from investors in newspaper firm Hollinger International, which used to own the Daily Telegraph.

The Chicago jury also convicted three of the UK peer's associates of fraud.

Judge Amy St Eve adjourned Black's bail proceedings until Thursday to allow his defence team to consult Canadian lawyers.

Black handed over his UK passport to the court and will remain in the Chicago area until next week.

He had given up his Canadian citizenship in 2000 to become a British lord, after a court decision in his home country to block his acceptance of a peerage.

'Non-compete' payments

The guilty verdicts cap a remarkable fall from grace for Black, once one of the UK's wealthiest and most influential media figures.

The jury of nine women and three men took 12 days to reach a verdict in the high-profile case, after initially telling the judge that they could not reach an unanimous judgment.

as the verdicts were read out, was found guilty of taking money owed to investors in the form of "non-compete" payments originating from the sale of newspaper titles.

But he was cleared of abusing company resources to fund his extravagant lifestyle.

Three of Black's associates - Jack Boultbee, Peter Atkinson and Mark Kipnis - were also found guilty of fraud at the end of the 16-week trial.

Black was present in court to hear the verdict along with his wife, Barbara Amiel Black.

The charges on which he was found guilty carry a maximum penalty of 35 years in prison.

'Lengthy prison sentence'

After the hearing his lawyer, Edward Greenspan, said: "We intend to appeal and there are viable legal issues. We vehemently disagree with the government's position on sentencing.

"We believe, based on the conviction of the charges here, that the sentences for this type of offence are far less than what the government suggested."

Key testimony

David Radler, the British peer's former second-in-command at Hollinger, testified against Black after himself admitting fraud in return for a reduced sentence.

Radler told the court Black had personally initiated a fraudulent scheme to pocket payments which rival firms had agreed to pay Hollinger to limit competition in key markets.

Black's lawyers argued that Radler was a "self-confessed liar" and that the payments had been authorised by the company.

Hollinger's newspaper empire once spanned the globe, including titles such as the National Post of Canada and the Jerusalem Post.