In brief: U.N. nuclear agency fails to break Iran’s stonewall

Vienna – The U.N. nuclear agency early today acknowledged its renewed failure in trying to probe suspicions that Tehran has worked secretly on atomic arms, in a statement issued shortly after an Iranian general warned of a pre-emptive strike against any nation that threatens Iran.

The double signs of defiance reflected continued Iranian determination not to bow to demands that it defuse suspicions about its nuclear activities despite rapidly growing international sanctions imposed over its refusal to signal it is ready to compromise.

With the International Atomic Energy Agency already failing to dent Iranian stonewalling in talks that ended just three weeks ago, hopes had been muted that the latest effort would be any more successful even before the IAEA issued its statement.

The fact that the communique was issued early today, shortly after midnight and just after the IAEA experts left Tehran, reflected the urgency the agency attached to telling its side of the story.

Heavy casualties reported in shelling of Syrian city

Beirut, Lebanon – Opposition activists reported scores of people killed Tuesday across Syria, including many in a new round of government shelling of the besieged city of Homs, as the International Committee of the Red Cross called for a “humanitarian pause” in order to aid Syria’s expanding ranks of victims.

Amid fear that Syria could be headed toward civil war, the Red Cross proposed that both sides in the conflict respect daily, two-hour cease-fires to allow time to deliver aid and evacuate the wounded and the sick.

“The current situation requires an immediate decision to implement a humanitarian pause in the fighting,” Jakob Kellenberger, president of the Red Cross, said in a statement. “In Homs and in other affected areas, entire families have been stuck for days in their homes, unable to step outside to get bread, other food or water, or to obtain medical care.”

The Syrian government has rejected any attempt to “internationalize” the almost yearlong conflict. Syrian authorities describe the violence as a foreign plot meant to destabilize the nation and topple President Bashar Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for more than 40 years.