The Iranian government is hosting a nuclear conference Saturday and Sunday in Tehran, in counterpoint to the Washington summit this week to which it was not invited. The meeting comes as the U.S. pushes for a fourth set of sanctions over Tehran's disputed nuclear program, a drive that appears to be gaining momentum.
Looking ahead to the Tehran meeting, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted that his country is doing its best to work with world powers.
In an interview on state television, Mr. Ahmadinejad said "we are actually after cooperation and negotiation. We still are.” He added that Iran was willing to deal with a formula that protects Iran's rights, includes its independence, dignity and honor - and excludes the nuclear issue.
It's that kind of mixed message that frustrates so many. Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful, civilian purposes. But by refusing to comply with U.N. nuclear agency requests, it deepens suspicions that it seeks nuclear weapons.
Ezzedine Choukri Fishere, political science professor at the American University in Cairo, says the Iranian program is worrying for almost everyone, both in the region and in the international community.
“The fact that Iran insists on pursuing these features and refusing to reassure the international community and its neighbors,” Fishere said, “means that those who are worried about it enough to take action, will eventually take action."
The conference in Iran appears aimed at showing Tehran still has supporters. India is one nuclear power sending a representative, though at a far lower official level than at the Washington summit.
There are signs others are losing patience. China, which has been holding out against further U.N. sanctions, has agreed to be involved at least in the drafting of new measures. The veto-wielding nation depends on Iran for some ten percent of its oil, although in recent months has been looking at other Persian Gulf nations as possible suppliers.
Further complicating efforts of those wishing to support Iran are comments by authorities that leave many simply baffled.
Earlier in the week, a senior official at Iran's atomic energy agency declared the country would become a member of the "nuclear club" within a month. The term is commonly used to describe nations with nuclear weapons.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was quick to dismiss the idea, saying he didn't believe it.
“I think most estimates that I've seen haven't changed since the last time we talked about it, which is, at least a year, maybe more," Gates said.
Political science professor Fishere argued both sides need to go beyond reacting to statements like that about the nuclear club, which he says could be aimed at a domestic audience or simply a matter of mistranslation. He urged the United States and Iran to sit down to direct dialogue about all the issues at stake. But he argues that the offer by President Barack Obama to reach out to Iran didn't go far enough.
"What the Obama administration did was incurring the political cost of calling for a dialogue with Iran, but without actually the benefit of engaging in that dialogue,” Fishere said.
He added that he hopes the administration will be bold enough to finally engage in face-to-face dialogue and put on the table the serious issues and the real issues it is worried about.
Fishere said the U.N. offer last year to enrich Iranian uranium abroad -an offer rejected by Iran - was a good start, arguing that broadening that dialogue will help bring Iran back from what he calls the "abyss" that it appears to be approaching.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Iran to Host Own Nuclear Summit Saturday
110 Dead as Cyclone Slams Eastern India, Bangladesh
A cyclone has hit eastern India and Bangladesh, killing at least 110 people and destroying more than 60,000 homes. The storm ripped across India's West Bengal and Bihar states and neighboring parts of Bangladesh late Tuesday. Four of the deaths were reported in Bangladesh, including a police officer who was crushed under a wall. The cyclone packed winds of up to 120 kilometers an hour, destroying power and telephone lines and uprooting trees in Bihar and West Bengal. Indian authorities are rushing aid to cyclone-hit areas, and the homeless are being shifted to temporary shelters. The Bay of Bengal region is frequently battered by storms and cyclones. In 2007, Cyclone Sidr killed more than 3,500 people in Bangladesh and displaced 2 million others. Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
Leaders prepare for the first television debate
The leaders of the three main political parties are preparing to hold their first TV debate on Thursday evening.
The live broadcast will see Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg answer questions chosen by a 200-strong audience, and from viewers' e-mails.
Being filmed at Granada Studios in Manchester, the focus for the 90-minute programme is domestic affairs, but leaders can air other issues.
It is being shown on ITV 1. Sky and BBC 1 will broadcast the other two debates.
The US-style televised debates between the three party leaders are the first of their kind in the UK.
'Huge job interview'
Gordon Brown told ITV 1 "he was not nervous, but determined to get our views across".
"You gotta be realistic and honest that nothing will be the perfection you want it to be, but I'm determined to get my message across," he said. 
Asked why he had agreed to do it, Mr Brown said: "I think the public in this television age have got a right to see the different parties' prospectuses through their leaders, and I think people will be able to judge whether our policies are better."
Conservative leader David Cameron said he was "looking forward to it".
"It is an historic first for our country to have live televised debates between the people putting themselves forward to be prime minister.
"It is a great opportunity to try to communicate to those millions of people in our country who are switched off politics."
Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said he "wouldn't be human" if he wasn't excited about the live debates.
"It's like having one big huge job interview in front of the whole nation," he said. "But the main thing is I know myself well enough, I've actually got to enjoy it.
"That's what I want to do, instead of constantly worrying about saying this or that or getting that fact wrong or right."
Rehearsals
BBC political editor Nick Robinson said both Labour and the Conservatives were resorting to mind games, playing down how well their leaders are likely to perform, each saying that the other will have the better debate.
Yet he added all three leaders had been hard at work practicing for the big night.
For Mr Cameron's rehearsals, he said shadow immigration minister Damian Green had been playing the role of Mr Brown; while the prime minister had enlisted Alistair Campbell, Tony Blair's former director of communications, to play the Tory leader.
"But they know that when the big moment comes they are on their own," said our political editor.
He added that it was also a big night for Mr Clegg, and a question of whether he has just a "walk on part", or if he can show he should be treated as someone ready to claim his place in high office.
The debates are bound by more than 70 rules agreed after weeks of negotiations between senior Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat officials, and the broadcasters.
Before the questions begin, Mr Brown, Mr Cameron, and Mr Clegg will be allowed to make a one-minute opening address, and a 90-minute closing statement at the end of the show.
The audiences will be asked to applaud at the start and end of the programmes, and will not be allowed to make any response to the answers or comments given by the three leaders.
They will also not be allowed to ask their questions directly, instead they will be presented on their behalf by the presenter of each show, which in ITV 1's case is Alastair Stewart.
Mr Brown, Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg will have a time limit enforced on their answers.
With the three only set to face eight questions on Thursday night, Mr Cameron said he was concerned the debate risked being "slow and sluggish".
Most of the 200-strong audience in each debate will be picked by pollsters ICM from the local area to ensure a balance of gender, age, ethnicity, social class and voting intention.
Broadcasters drew lots on the order in which debates will be screened and the themes.
Sky News will be showing the second debate on Thursday, 22 April, which will look at foreign affairs. The final debate on BBC 1 on Thursday, 29 April will focus on the economy.
The first debate follows after two opinion polls said the Conservatives had seen an increase in support.
The YouGov daily tracker poll for The Sun said on Wednesday night that the Conservatives had extended their lead over Labour to nine points.
It puts the Tories on 41%, up two points on the previous day, with Labour up one on 32%, and the Lib Dems down two on 18%.
A separate poll for the Daily Telegraph said the Conservatives were leading Labour in 100 key marginal constituencies. It put the Tories on 43%, with Labour on 31%, and the Lib Dems on 20%.
• The First Election Debate programme will be shown on ITV 1 on Thursday, 15 April, starting at 2030 BST. In Scotland it will be shown on STV, and on UTV in Northern Ireland.
Kaczynski burial plan causes split
A row has broken out over the decision to bury Polish President Lech Kaczynski in Wawel cathedral in Krakow - a place reserved for Poland's kings and heroes.
Hundreds have taken to the streets of the southern city in protest at the plan for a second consecutive night.
Thousands have joined an internet campaign against it. Mr Kaczynski died in a plane crash on Saturday along with his wife and many senior officials.
A date for a presidential election will be set after the funeral on Sunday.
Acclaimed Polish film director Andrzej Wajda dubbed the burial arrangements "misplaced" and "hastily made as emotions ran high", in an open letter published by the newspaper, Gazeta Wyborcza.
"Lech Kaczynski was an ordinary and good man, but there is no reason for him to lie in the Wawel among the kings of Poland and Marshal Jozef Pilsudski [the founder of modern-day Poland]," he said.
Officials said the site in a crypt close to Marshal Pilsudski was chosen by church leaders and the Kaczynski family, which include Mr Kaczynski's twin, Jaroslaw - the leader of Poland's opposition.
But Mr Wajda said the decision "will spark protests and could cause the deepest splits in Polish society since 1989".
Facebook protest
Hundreds of people staged a protest in front of the residence of Krakow's Archbishop, Stanislaw Dziwisz, on Tuesday evening, carrying banners reading: "Not Krakow, not Wawel", and "Are you sure he is the equal of kings?"
Late on Wednesday a second protest was held, as well as a smaller counter demonstration in favour of the plan.
A Facebook group called "No to the Kaczynskis' burial in Wawel" had attracted more than 26,000 members by Wednesday.
Many world leaders are to attend Sunday's funeral, including US President Barack Obama along with the leaders of Russia, France and Germany.
Polish officials have said that elections for a new president will be held in June.
In a parliamentary document they wrote that there were "two possible dates" - 13 or 20 June.
Poland's acting President, Bronislaw Komorowski, is expected to name the exact date after consulting political parties.
The bodies of the presidential couple have been lying in state together at the presidential palace in Warsaw.
They were among 96 people on board the Polish government jet that crashed in heavy fog while trying to land in the Smolensk region of Russia.
They had been travelling to attend a memorial service for Polish military officers and others massacred by Stalin's secret police at Katyn in 1940.
Other victims of the crash, whose bodies are believed to have been badly disfigured or burnt in the crash, are being identified by forensic scientists in Moscow.
A number of the dead have yet to be retrieved from the wreckage, officials said.
Russian investigators believe pilot error was to blame for the crash.
Air traffic controllers who handled the plane have been quoted as saying the Polish crew refused three times to heed advice to divert to another airport because of poor visibility.
China sifts rubble for quake survivors in Qinghai
China has been sifting rubble for survivors of the deadly quake which hit the remote Qinghai region as thousands spent a freezing night in the open.
Rescuers used bare hands and picks to search debris as night fell, with little heavy lifting equipment in the mountainous, mainly Tibetan area.
Officials say 589 people died and 10,000 were injured when the quake struck Yushu county early on Wednesday.
But the death toll is expected to rise and further aftershocks are feared.
Relief flights carrying medical workers and supplies have been landing in Yushu airport but the road to the town of 70,000 people has been blocked by a landslide, the Associated Press news agency reports from Qinghai's provincial capital, Xining.
The BBC's Chris Hogg, in Qinghai and travelling by road to the disaster area, passed long columns of military vehicles carrying diggers and other heavy lifting equipment as dawn was breaking on Thursday.
The columns, which included ambulances, were about eight or nine hours from the disaster zone, he said.
In the township of Jiegu, 85% of buildings were destroyed, officials say, and state TV has been showing street after street reduced to rubble.
Several schools collapsed and at least 56 students are known to have died, 22 of them in a school in Yushu.
Chinese President Hu Jintao has called for an all-out effort to save as many people as possible and some 5,000 rescuers, including 700 soldiers, have been sent to the disaster area.
The civil affairs ministry said it was to send 5,000 tents, 50,000 coats and 50,000 quilts as local officials in Yushu reported a lack of tents, medicines and medical equipment.
China has received messages of sympathy and offers of aid from foreign states including Japan, Russia and France.
'So much dust'
About 900 people have been pulled alive from under the rubble since the quake struck at 0749 on Wednesday (2349 GMT Tuesday), at the shallow depth of 10km (six miles), Chinese media say.
But Wu Yong, a local army commander, said the death toll could rise "as lots of houses collapsed".
Rescue operations were being hampered by the fact that the magnitude 6.9 quake disrupted telecommunications, knocked out electricity and triggered landslides.
In Xining, some 860km (530 miles) from the quake zone, soldiers, fire-fighters and rescue workers with sniffer dogs thronged the airport, which closed to civilian flights for several hours to make way for relief planes.
Efforts are being slowed down by the lack of jet fuel stored at Yushu airport. Relief planes are having to carry extra fuel, limiting their space for supplies.
As local officials struggled to find accommodation for the thousands of people left homeless, weather forecasters were predicting wind and sleet in the coming days, putting victims at risk of exposure.
Luo Song, a monk from a monastery in Yushu county, said his sister who worked at an orphanage there had told him three children were sent to a hospital but the facilities lacked equipment.
"She said the hospitals are facing a lot of difficulty right now because there are no doctors, they have only bandages, they can't give injections, they can't put people on intravenous drips," he told AP by phone from the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.
In Jiegu, hotel manager Ren Yu said that nearly all of the local mud and wood houses had collapsed.
"There was so much dust in the air, we couldn't see anything," he said.
"There was a lot of panic. People were crying on the streets. Some of our staff, who were reunited with their parents, were also in tears."
Harrowing photographs have emerged of emergency workers removing dust-covered dead infants from rubble.
The high-altitude region is prone to earthquakes but, according to the US Geological Survey, this was the strongest tremor within 100km of the area since 1976.
In 2008, a huge quake struck neighbouring Sichuan province, about 800km from Yushu. That left 87,000 people dead or missing and five million homeless.
Terrible earthquake’ kills hundreds in China
BEIJING - A series of strong earthquakes struck a far western Tibetan area of China on Wednesday, killing at least 400 people and injuring thousands as houses made of mud and wood collapsed, trapping many more, officials said.
State television channel, CCTV, quoted an emergency official, Pubucairen, as saying that the number of injured was believed to be more than 10,000.
The main temblor of magnitude-6.9 struck in southern Qinghai province, near Tibet, on Wednesday morning, the U.S. Geological Survey said. The USGS recorded six temblors in less than three hours, all but one registered 5.0 or higher.
The official Xinhua News Agency reported that a number of school buildings had collapsed, citing witness reports that some students had been killed and others were trapped in the rubble.
Workers were racing to release water from a reservoir in the disaster area where a crack had formed after the quake to prevent a flood, according to the China Earthquake Administration.
The quake was centered on Yushu county, a Tibetan area in Qinghai's south, with a population of about 100,000, mostly herders and farmers.
The main quake sent residents fleeing as it toppled houses made of mud and wood, said Karsum Nyima, the Yushu county television station's deputy head of news, speaking by phone with broadcaster CCTV.
In a flash, the houses went down. It was a terrible earthquake," he said. "In a small park, there is a Buddhist pagoda and the top of the pagoda fell off. ... Everybody is out on the streets, standing in front of their houses, trying to find their family members."
The earthquake comes a little less than two years after a magnitude-7.9 quake in neighboring Sichuan province left almost 90,000 people dead or missing. That quake flattened several schools, killing thousands of students. Poor design, shoddy construction and the lax enforcement of building codes were found to be rampant, causing public anger.
Students dead, others trapped
Xinhua reported that the early morning quake had caused some schools and part of a government office building to cave in.
Zhu Liang, a driver at the Yushu prefecture government, told Xinhua that half of the Yushu Vocational School's buildings had collapsed.
"I do not know how many students have died," Zhu, who is now in the rescue operation, told the news service. "Students just got up and were yet to go to class when the quake happened. I recovered several bodies from the debris and found they were fully dressed."
"Buildings in our school were all toppled, and five pupils have died," said a teacher surnamed Chang at the Yushu Primary School, a boarding school with about 1,000 students. "Morning sessions did not begin when the quake happened. Some pupils ran out of dorms alive, and those who had not escaped in time were buried."
Xinhua added that residents said most students had been able to flee to playgrounds.
"Most of the schools in Yushu were built fairly recently and should have been able to withstand the earthquake," said Wang Liling, a volunteer worker for Gesanghua, a Chinese charity that helps school children in Qinghai.
Her group, she said, had heard that a vocational school collapsed in Yushu. "Many homes have been damaged, but we'll have to wait until this evening, when our staff arrive there, to understand anything specific."
Samdrup Gyatso, 17, who ran a shop in his two-story house in Gyegu, told Xinhua: "There are 10 people in my family and only four of us escaped. One of my relatives died. All the others are buried under the rubble."
'Thronged with panic'
In Jiegu, a township near the epicenter, more than 85 percent of houses had collapsed, while large cracks have appeared on buildings still standing, Xinhua cited Zhuohuaxia, a local publicity official, as saying.
"The streets in Jiegu are thronged with panic and full of injured people, with many of them bleeding from their injuries," he told Xinhua. "Many students are buried under the debris due to building collapse at a vocational school."
"A large crack appears in the wall of the Yushu Hotel, and part of a government office building also collapsed," he added. "I can see injured people everywhere. The biggest problem now is that we lack tents, we lack medical equipment, medicine and medical workers."
State television Wednesday showed footage of paramilitary police using shovels to dig around a house with a collapsed wooden roof.
A local military official, Shi Huajie, told CCTV that rescuers were working with limited equipment.
"The difficulty we face is that we don't have any excavators. Many of the people have been buried and our soldiers are trying to pull them out with human labor," Shi said.
"It is very difficult to save people with our bare hands."
Officials said excavators were not available and, with most of the roads leading to the nearest airport damaged, equipment and rescuers would have a hard time reaching the area.
Downed phone lines, strong winds and frequent aftershocks were also hindering rescue efforts, said Wu Yong, a local military chief.
People from the Yushu prefecture highway department were frantically trying to dig out colleagues trapped in a collapsed building, department official Ji Guodong said by telephone.
"The homes are built with thick walls and are strong, but if they collapsed they could hurt many people inside," Zhuo De told Reuters by phone from the capital of Qinghai province after contacting his family in Yushu.
Five thousand tents and 100,000 thick, cotton coats and heavy blankets were being sent to help survivors cope with strong winds and near-freezing temperatures of around 43 degrees Fahrenheit, the Qinghai provincial government said in a statement.
The epicenter of the first quake was located 235 miles south-southeast of Golmud, a large city in Qinghai, at a depth of six miles, the USGS said.
Ten minutes later, the area was hit by a magnitude 5.3 quake, which was followed after two minutes by a temblor measuring 5.2, according to the U.S. agency. Both the subsequent earthquakes were measured at a depth of 6 miles. Another quake, measuring 5.8, was recorded at 9:25 a.m.
Xinhua cited officials at the China Earthquake Networks Center as saying at least 18 aftershocks have been reported and that more temblors exceeding magnitude 6 were likely to occur in the coming days.
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Preliminary Earthquake Report
Magnitude 4.8 SOUTHERN QINGHAI, CHINA
Wednesday, April 14, 2010 at 03:15:46 UTC
Magnitude 4.8
Date-Time Wednesday, April 14, 2010 at 03:15:46 (UTC) - Coordinated Universal Time
Wednesday, April 14, 2010 at 11:15:46 AM local time at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location 32.85N 96.34E
Depth: 10.0 kilometers
Region SOUTHERN QINGHAI, CHINA
Distances: 205 km (125 miles) NNW of Qamdo, Xizang (Tibet)
410 km (255 miles) SSE of Golmud, Qinghai, China
560 km (350 miles) S of Da Qaidam, Qinghai, China
1950 km (1220 miles) WSW of BEIJING, Beijing, China
Location Uncertainty Error estimate: horizontal +/- 20.5 km; depth fixed by location program
Parameters Nst=20, Nph=20, Dmin=1894.6 km, Rmss=0.35 sec, Erho=20.5 km, Erzz=0 km, Gp=-1.0 degrees
Source USGS NEIC (WDCS-D)
Event ID us2010vbas
Deadly Earthquake Strikes China
Frame grab taken off Chinese state CCTV shows Chinese military searching through the rubble of collapsed buildings following a strong earthquake in Yushu County in northwest China's Qinghai province, 14 Apr 2010Western China has been rocked by a powerful earthquake and strong aftershocks, which have claimed more than 400 lives. More than 8,000 people have been injured and many more people may be trapped in damaged buildings.
The earthquake struck the western Chinese province of Qinghai early Wednesday, collapsing buildings in villages around the region.
The China Earthquake Administration estimates the quake as being a 7.1 magnitude, while the U.S. Geological Survey puts it at 6.9.
The quake struck just before 8 in the morning in the mountainous and remote western area, which divides Qinghai Province and Tibet.
A second strong quake struck about five minutes later, state media say, destroying 85 percent of the buildings in one township near the epicenter.
School children are among those reported as trapped and many injured people can be seen in the street with bleeding head wounds.
An Armed Police Detachment Commander in Qinghai, Shi Huajie, told Chinese state TV some 600 rescuers are scrambling to save the many people he says are buried in Yushu County. But he says a lack of organization is slowing their efforts.
Shi says the earthquake stuck when many people were still a sleep - and he says the rescue effort is also being hampered by the lack of heavy lifting equipment.
Telecommunications have been disrupted and roads from the nearest airport are reported to be badly damaged.
Rescue equipment is being rushed to the high altitude area.
The quake comes nearly two years after the massive western Sichuan earthquake, which claimed at least 68,000 lives. That quake sparked angry protests among residents who said the poor quality of buildings was to blame for the large number of casualties, especially children who died when their schools collapsed.
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