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USA. Iran just months from N-bomb. IRAN may be just six months away from developing a nuclear bomb, despite international attempts to thwart the program through sanctions and cyber attacks.

Iran just months from N-bomb

Two years after an underground installation in the city of Qmo was revealed in a joint press conference by US President Barack Obama, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and former British prime minister Gordon Brown, Iran has significantly advanced its uranium enrichment program at the site. The latest report from the International Atomic Energy Agency concludes that Iran has not only boosted production but upgraded the level of enrichment from 3.5 per cent to almost 20 per cent and has installed more sophisticated centrifuges, which it is moving to the bunker in Qom, apparently to protect them from airstrikes. Low-enriched uranium is used for nuclear power, which Iran insists is the purpose of its program.Weapons-grade uranium is about 90 per cent enriched.

These IR-2 centrifuges have replaced unreliable and antiquated machines. UN receives request to condemn U.S. drone flights over Iran. By William M.

UN receives request to condemn U.S. drone flights over Iran

Reilly UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- The United Nations acknowledged on Friday receiving Iran's request to condemn U.S. drone flights over its territory as "acts of aggression. " The spokesman for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Martin Nesirky, told Xinhua that "I can confirm that a letter to the secretary-general has been received from the Iranian permanent representative (Mohammad Khazaee) ... We don't have any comment. " Ban was visiting the capital of Somalia, Mogadishu, along with the president of 66th UN General Assembly, Nasser A. In a copy of the letter Xinhua received from the Iranian mission, Khazaee said he has sent an identical letter to Al-Nasser as well as the president of the UN Security Council for December, Russia's UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin.

Churkin, briefing the media after council consultations on other matters on Friday afternoon did not mention receipt of the letter or any plans for the panel of 15 member states to discuss the request. Israeli drones in Gaza: How to occupy territory without troops. Photograph by Said Khatib/AFP/Getty Images.

Israeli drones in Gaza: How to occupy territory without troops

Yesterday, for the third time this year, Iran said it had shot down a U.S. drone in its airspace. The United States doubted the drone had been shot down but refused to say what it had been doing near the Iran-Afghan border. NATO said the drone might have crashed in Iran after operators “lost control” of it over Afghanistan. All three stories sound fishy. If I were the CIA or the U.S. military, I’d be using our drones to spy on Iran. Will Saletan writes about politics, science, technology, and other stuff for Slate. Follow To understand how it feels to live under drones, look 1,000 miles to Iran’s west, toward the Gaza strip.

But not out of the air. Israel’s occupations of land beyond its original borders—Southern Lebanon, Gaza, the West Bank—have been morally and politically costly. If your country had endured such assaults, you’d want to know exactly what your neighbors were up to. Zakaria and Baer: Downed U.S. drone an intel catastrophe. Editor's Note: The following is an edited transcript of a discussion between Anderson Cooper, Robert Baer and Fareed Zakaria on the subject of a downed U.S. drone in Iran.

Zakaria and Baer: Downed U.S. drone an intel catastrophe

Anderson Cooper: We're tracking the evolving story of what became of an American drone called an RQ-170 Sentinel. It is also known as the Beast of Kandahar. Reports are sent that it was orbiting over Osama bin Laden's compound gathering intelligence while the stealth technology made it invisible to Pakistani radar. Tonight though, that stealth technology may be in the hands Iran. Iran claims they tracked and RQ-170 last week as it flew across the Afghan border deep into Iran. You can see it.

Is it for real? That's where we stand tonight. I talked about what the Iranians may have and what its mission might have been with former CIA officer and TIME.com intelligence columnist Robert Baer, co- author of The Company We Keep: A Husband and Wife, True-life Spy Story. Robert Baer: Oh, I think it absolutely is. Iran Shows Video It Says Is of U.S. Drone. Revolutionary Guards, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images A photo released by the official website of Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Thursday shows Brigadier General Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, right, looking at what Iranian officials say is an American RQ-170 Sentinel high-altitude reconnaissance drone that crashed in Iran.

Iran Shows Video It Says Is of U.S. Drone

American officials viewing the video declined to confirm or deny that the aircraft shown was the one that they have said was lost several days ago by controllers in neighboring Afghanistan. Blacklist_of_essential_service_enforced_with_prejudice.flv.