PERSIAN GULF

IRAN CONFIRMS URANIUM ENRICHMENT PLANT IS UNDERGROUND

An Iranian official confirmed yesterday that a uranium enrichment plant in central Iran has been built underground as a protection against air strikes, but insisted that it is not a sign the program aims to produce nuclear weapons. American officials have said building nuclear facilities underground is inconsistent with Iran’s contention that its atomic program is intended only for the generation of electricity. The Iranians deny Washington’s accusation that they are trying to build nuclear weapons.

A nuclear affairs adviser to the foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, said American and Israeli threats forced Iran to take precautions to protect its technology, including the string of centrifuges used to enrich uranium – a process that can produce fuel for nuclear reactors that generate electricity but also make material suitable for atomic warheads. It was the first public confirmation by Iran that the Natanz facility is underground.

– Associated Press

SOUTH AMERICA

BOLIVIAN PRESIDENT SUBMITS RESIGNATION

LA PAZ, Bolivia – President Mesa submitted his resignation to Congress yesterday after warning that a wave of protests against his 15-month-old government may soon leave Bolivia’s largest cities isolated by road blockades. Legislators could decide as early as today whether to accept his resignation, which followed several days of street protests calling for a privatized water company to immediately stop operating and demanding higher taxes on oil companies. Should the chamber accept Mr. Mesa’s resignation, his successor according to the constitution would be the Senate president, Hormando Vaca Diez. The next presidential election is set for June 2007, but some politicians have suggested it may be held earlier as a result of the recent turmoil.

– Associated Press

CARIBBEAN

AT LEAST 134 KILLED IN FIRE AT DOMINICAN PRISON

Rival gangs battling over the drug trade in an overcrowded, vermin-infested prison set their bedding ablaze and blocked the entrance to their cellblock, killing at least 134 inmates in one of Latin America’s worst jailhouse blazes.

Some died in a stampede to escape the flames after guards forced open the jammed door in the cellblock known as Vietnam, one survivor said, while others were killed by smoke inhalation. Only 26 prisoners were rescued from the jail in Higuey, 75 miles northeast of the capital on the eastern tip of the island, said the national police chief, Manuel de Jesus Perez Sanchez. Eighteen were injured.

The disaster underscored the terrible prison conditions in the Dominican Republic, which has the most overcrowded jails in the Western Hemisphere, according to U.N. figures. Domingo Porfirio Rojas-Nina of the Dominican National Human Rights Commission said he has been complaining for six years that the Higuey prison “is the worst in the country. It is hell on earth. It is unfit for human beings.”

– Associated Press

EAST ASIA

CHINA’S JIANG LEAVES LAST OFFICIAL POST

BEIJING – China’s Parliament today approved Jiang Zemin’s resignation from his last official post as chairman of a figurehead government military body, bringing a symbolic end to a transfer of power to a younger generation of leaders. Mr. Jiang’s resignation from the government Central Military Commission, which was expected, was approved 2,853-8 by delegates to the figurehead National People’s Congress. Mr. Jiang, 78, was expected to be replaced by President Hu, 62, his successor as Communist Party leader.

Separately, a proposed Chinese anti-secession law would authorize Beijing to take military action to stop rival Taiwan from pursuing formal independence if other efforts fail, a leader of China’s Parliament said today. Wang Zhaoguo, reading out the proposed law for the first time before the figurehead National People’s Congress, didn’t give any details of what specific developments might trigger a Chinese attack.

– Associated Press