In brief: U.S. allows Iran more centrifuges, website claims
Washington – The Obama administration has agreed to allow Iran to operate 6,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium, up from a ceiling of 4,000 reported two weeks ago, as part of negotiations for a nuclear deal, according to a website approved by the Iranian government.
The claim appeared to be the latest sign that the pace of bargaining is intensifying between Iran and six world powers as they face a Nov. 24 negotiating deadline.
The two sides are seeking a comprehensive deal that would lift international sanctions on Iran’s economy in exchange for verifiable limits on Iran’s nuclear program to prevent the country from being able to build a bomb. The size of Iran’s centrifuge inventory is a key sticking point in the talks that began in January.
Pair wanted in attack on students caught
Mexico City – Mexico’s most-wanted couple, accused of running their town as a drug fiefdom and ordering an attack that killed six and left 43 college students missing, were caught Tuesday in a rough-and-tumble neighborhood of Mexico City where they were hiding.
Federal police seized Jose Luis Abarca and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda, in a raid before dawn in Iztapalapa, a working-class neighborhood of the capital. It was a far fall from their reign of wealth and power as the mayor and first lady of Iguala, a town in southern Guerrero state where the students from a teachers college went missing Sept. 26, allegedly at the hands of police and a drug cartel.
Even as they were hauled off to the attorney general’s organized crime unit to give their statements, the capture did nothing to answer the biggest mystery: Where are the students? Their disappearance, and the failure to make progress in the case, has ignited protests across the country and broadsided President Enrique Pena Nieto’s efforts to paint violence in Mexico as a thing of the past.
Authorities have uncovered mass graves and the remains of 38 people, but none has been identified as a missing student.
Pistorius prosecutors file appeal papers
Stellenbosch, South Africa – Prosecutors in the Oscar Pistorius case filed appeal papers Tuesday, saying they believe a judge did not correctly apply the law when she found the Olympic athlete not guilty of murder for shooting girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
The prosecutors also said they were appealing against the “shockingly light” five-year prison sentence Pistorius was given for manslaughter, as well as a third decision by Judge Thokozile Masipa to acquit the double-amputee runner of illegal possession of ammunition for bullets found in his home.
South Africa’s National Prosecuting Authority said it had filed for leave to appeal those verdicts and sentence.