Iran defiant on enrichment
Iran has rejected a call by the governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency to halt its programme for enriching uranium. Under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Iran is allowed to enrich uranium for use in power plants, but the IAEA says it should stop as a show of good faith. Iran鈥檚 chief nuclear negotiator, Hassan Rohani, warned on Sunday that the country will pull out of the treaty if the IAEA presses its case.
Lawsuit targets Big Tobacco
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A $280 billion lawsuit that could cripple the US tobacco industry was launched on Tuesday. Federal prosecutors representing the US Department of Justice allege that over the past five decades manufacturers lied to the public over the dangers of smoking, and misleadingly promoted 鈥渓ight鈥� and 鈥渓ow tar鈥� cigarettes as being safer to smoke. Tobacco companies, including Philip Morris and American Tobacco, say they will mount a vigorous defence against the allegations.
Rogue papaya found
Genetically modified papaya trees have been found on eight more farms in Thailand, its agriculture minister Somsak Thepsuthin announced on Monday. Thailand has not approved the commercial growing of any GM strains. Greenpeace claimed in July that a modified papaya found on a farm came from seed sold by a research station growing an experimental plot of the GM strain. Somsak says it is not yet clear if the variety found on farms is the same as the lab strain.
Job offer for alleged hacker
Sven Jaschan, the 18-year-old who will go on trial next month accused of creating two of this year鈥檚 most damaging computer viruses, Sasser and Netsky, has been offered a programming job at a computer security firm. SecurePoint of L眉neburg, Germany, says Jaschan made a mistake and deserves a second chance. But some security experts say the job offer could encourage other virus writers.