IAEA: Iran Has 1,300 Centrifuges Up and Running

April 19, 2007 -- IRAN

IAEA: Iran Has 1,300 Centrifuges Up and Running

International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors have confirmed through firsthand observation that Iran has over 1,300 centrifuges in operation, a diplomat close to the organization told ABC News. (ABC News)

Iran Clears 6 Who Killed to Defend Islamic Moral Code

The Iranian Supreme Court has overturned the murder convictions of six members of a prestigious state militia who killed five people they considered "morally corrupt." (International Herald Tribune)

Iran Says No Info on Missing American

The Iranian government has told the United States that it has no information about a former FBI agent who has been missing in Iran for more than a month, the State Department said Thursday. (AP)

VIRGINIA TECH SHOOTING

Killer Mails Letter, Photos, Video to NBC

Seung-hui Cho, who according to authorities shot and killed 32 people at Virginia Tech Monday before turning the gun on himself, mailed photos, a letter and video clips of himself reciting an angry rant to NBC during a pause in his killing spree. (ABC News)

Virginia Tech Had Clues 17 Months Before Killings

The campus authorities were aware 17 months ago of the troubled mental state of the student who shot and killed 32 people at Virginia Tech, an imbalance that was graphically on display in vengeful videos and a manifesto he mailed to NBC News in the time between two sets of shootings. (International Herald Tribune)

Psychiatrist: Showing Cho's Video Is 'Social Catastrophe'

The videos of Seung-hui Cho, the man who fatally shot 32 people at Virginia Tech on Monday and then killed himself, shouldn't have been released because they don't offer the public any greater understanding of the gruesome crime, said Michael Welner, a forensic psychiatrist and ABC News consultant, on "Good Morning America" today. (ABC News)

IRAQ

11 Dead After Suicide Car Bomb Hits Fuel Truck in Baghdad

A suicide car bomber rammed into a fuel truck today in central Baghdad, killing at least 11 people, police said. (AP)

Iraqis Bury Victims from Deadly Attacks

Grieving relatives retrieved bodies from hospital morgues Thursday, and passers-by gawked at the giant crater left by a market bomb in one of four attacks that killed 183 people on the bloodiest day since the U.S. troop increase began nine weeks ago. (AP)

Iraqi PM Condemns Baghdad Attacks

Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki has condemned bombings in Baghdad that killed nearly 200 people - the worst day of violence since a US security operation began. (BBC)

Iraq War Air Crash 'Due To Fault'

The death of eight UK servicemen in an US helicopter crash at the start of the Iraq conflict was due to mechanical failure, a coroner has ruled. (BBC)

U.S.

On the Hill, Gonzales Gets His Chance at Redemption

When Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales's top aide contemplated the mass dismissal of chief federal prosecutors two years ago, he advocated keeping the "loyal Bushies." Two years later, the question confronting President Bush is whether to keep Gonzales, the very model of a loyal Bushie. (Washington Post)

Congress Circling Embattled Bush Official

Unhappy that President Bush won't dismiss a senior appointee accused of abusing staff and interfering with investigations, Democrats in Congress are planning to haul the official in for public questioning. (ABC News)

AFGHANISTAN

Taliban Attack Civilians to Spread Fear—Amnesty

Taliban insurgents are deliberately targeting Afghan civilians in order to instil fear and exert control over the population, the rights group Amnesty International said on Thursday. (Reuters)

27 Taliban Killed in Afghanistan

U.S.-led coalition and Afghan forces clashed with Taliban fighters and called in an airstrike in southern Afghanistan, leaving 24 suspected militants dead and two coalition soldiers wounded, the coalition said Thursday. (AP)

PHILIPPINES

Man Sought in Philippines Killing

Police are looking for a man who may have been involved in the death of a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer in a mountainous tourist area in the northern Philippines, officials said Thursday. (AP)

7 Hostages Beheaded In Philippines

The heads of seven men believed to have been kidnapped by the al-Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf group on a volatile southern island were delivered to a Philippine army detachment Thursday, the military said. (AP)

FRANCE

Blasts Hit SW France Overnight, No Injuries

Simultaneous explosions occurred overnight in two towns in the southwest of France near the Spanish border, causing some damage to buildings but no casualties, a police source said on Thursday. (Reuters)

U.K.

21/7 Suspect 'Defused Booby-Trap'

One of the 21 July bomb plot suspects has shown a court how he claims he dismantled a booby-trapped sideboard. (BBC)

CHINA

China Sentences Canadian Activist to Life in Prison

A Canadian human rights campaigner jailed in China after allegations that he was linked to terrorism was sentenced to life in prison Thursday, the official Xinhua press agency said, in a ruling that could ratchet up political tensions between the countries. (AP)

China Confirms Terrorist Camps In Pakistan

In a major blow to Pakistan's counter-terrorism credentials, China has for the first time publicly acknowledged the existence of terrorist camps within the territory of its "all-weather" ally. (Times of India)

NORTH KOREA

North Korea's Burden Of Crime And Terror

North Korea may in the end get its US$25 million, which has been frozen in a Macau bank since September 2005. But the United States and North Korea still have a long way to go before relations between the two countries can be normalized. (Asia Times)

INDIA/CANADA

Indian MP Accused in Canada People Smuggling Plot

An Indian MP has been arrested for trying to smuggle a woman and a teenage boy to Canada using his family's passports, police said on Thursday, the latest in a string of crime scandals to blight the country's politicians. (AFP)

SAUDI ARABIA

Saudis Arrest 8 in Frenchmen's Deaths

Saudi security officials have arrested eight Saudi men suspected of involvement in the February killing of four French nationals, an Interior Ministry statement said Wednesday. (AP)

TURKEY

Turkey Detains More in Bible Attack

Police detained five more suspects Thursday in the deaths of three men who were found with their throats slit in a publishing house that prints Bibles, the latest in a string of attacks targeting Christians in the mostly Muslim country. (AP)

ANALYSIS & OPINION

Our Worst Nightmare

The horrifying killings at Virginia Tech on Monday leave us grieving and troubled. They also leave us -- especially those like me who lead colleges and universities -- with difficult questions to ask and, then, to try to answer. (Washington Post)

An Erosion of Abortion Rights

Taking an important medical choice away from women and doctors, the Supreme Court yesterday upheld a federal law banning the procedure known to opponents as partial-birth abortion. (Boston Globe)

Trouble is Brewing for the US in Iraqi Kurdistan

While the Bush administration struggles to stabilize Baghdad, a major new threat is emerging in the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq. If it isn't defused, this crisis could further erode US goals in Iraq - drawing foreign military intervention, splintering the country further apart and undermining American hopes for long-term military bases in Kurdistan. (Daily Star)

No More Delay on Darfur

Sudan's president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, attaches as little value to the promises he makes to the international community as he does to the lives of the many thousands of people who are being murdered in Darfur. A newly disclosed United Nations report highlights his brazen duplicity, describing how the Sudanese government painted false UN insignia on an air force plane being used to deliver bombs to Darfur. (International Herald Tribune)

Asia's Latest Great Power Joins the Game

The test would hardly have made the news outside of India if the local air-traffic controllers had posted a warning in advance, but when an Indonesian airliner had to turn around in Indian airspace last Thursday and return to Jakarta to avoid flying into the missile's path, it was bound to draw attention. (Japan Times)

The Insider Daily Investigative Report (DIR) is a summary of major news articles and broadcasts relating to investigative news, including international terrorism and developments in Iraq. The DIR is edited daily from foreign and U.S. sources by Chris Isham and Elizabeth Sprague of the ABC News Investigative Unit. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ABCNEWS.