In brief: Iran says it won’t halt high enrichment

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s nuclear chief said Sunday there are no reasons at the moment for his country to halt production of uranium enriched to 20 percent, a key demand of world powers, and Iran is planning two new reactors.

The West is concerned that the 20-percent enrichment could quickly be turned into nuclear weapons-grade material. Iran insists its nuclear development program is for peaceful purposes.

The nuclear chief, Fereidoun Abbasi, was quoted by the semiofficial ISNA news agency as saying that Iran will continue the higher enrichment level for a medical research reactor that produces isotopes for treatment of about 1 million cancer patients in Iran.

“There is no reason for us to back down on 20 percent-level enrichment, because we produce only as much 20 percent material as we need,” Abbasi said. “Not more, not less.”

Abbasi said Iran is planning to build at least two new nuclear power plants next to an existing facility.

French arrest ETA’s military chief, aide

MADRID – The military chief for of the violent Basque separatist group ETA was arrested Sunday in southern France along with another man accused of being his assistant, Spanish authorities said.

Oroitz Gurruchaga Gogorza and Xabier Aramburu were taken into custody in the small rural town of Cauna in southwestern France by French police working with Spanish authorities, Spain’s Interior Ministry said in a statement.

ETA has killed 829 people since the late 1960s in a campaign of bombings, shootings and extortion aimed at forcing the creation of a Basque homeland in northern Spain and southwestern France.

Police kill naked man eating another’s face

MIAMI – A man was shot to death by Miami police, and another man is fighting for his life after his face was half eaten by a naked man, police said.

The horror began about 2 p.m. Saturday when gunshots were heard on an off-ramp of the MacArthur Causeway.

According to police sources, a roadside-assistance truck driver saw a naked man chewing on another man’s face and shouted on his loudspeaker for him to back away. A woman also saw the incident and flagged down a police officer.

The officer, who has not been identified, approached and, seeing what was happening, also ordered the naked man to back away. When he continued the assault, the officer shot him, police sources said. The attacker did not stop after being shot and the officer continued to shoot, killing the naked man.

The other man was transported to the hospital with critical injuries, according to police. Their identities were not released.

Late-night blaze destroys bell factory

EAST HAMPTON, Conn. – One of the oldest continuously operating factories in Connecticut that made bells has been destroyed in a weekend fire.

The blaze at the Bevin Brothers Manufacturing Co. factory in East Hampton started at about 11:30 p.m. Saturday.

Bevin Brothers was the last of a once-thriving industry that earned East Hampton the nickname, “Belltown, USA.”

The Connecticut Region 3 Incident Management Team said propane tanks in the factory caught fire and exploded, helping spread the blaze.