New York gunman left note declaring plan to kill people

A gunman who killed two volunteer firefighters and wounded two others in a Christmas Eve ambush in upstate New York left a typewritten note saying he planned to burn down his neighborhood and start "killing people," authorities said on Tuesday.
The gunman, William Spengler, 62, opened fire on volunteer firefighters who responded to a house fire he deliberately set early on Monday morning in Webster, New York, a suburb of Rochester, authorities said.
Spengler shot and killed himself in an ensuing gunfight with police. He had spent 17 years in prison for beating his 92-year-old grandmother to death with a hammer in 1981, authorities said.
Police said Spengler set the fire, laying a trap for the firefighters, and began shooting when they arrived.
He left a typewritten note describing his intent, Webster Police Chief Gerald Pickering said at a televised news conference.
"I still have to get ready to see how much of the neighborhood I can burn down and do what I like doing best, killing people," Pickering read from the gunman's statement.
Investigators had found human remains in Spengler's burned-out house, where he lived with his sister, Cheryl Spengler, 67, Pickering said. The remains are assumed to be the sister's and a medical examiner will determine the cause of death.
"A CLEAR AMBUSH"
Spengler started shooting at the arriving firefighters before they got out of their fire truck, Pickering said. He shot out the truck's windshield as they tried to drive away, he said.
"This was a clear ambush on first responders," Pickering said. Police fired back at the gunman, he said. "It was a combat condition. They were shooting at muzzle flash," Pickering said.
Spengler was in a natural depression in an embankment near a tree when he opened fire, he said.
His motive for attacking firefighters remained unknown, Pickering said. It may have been related to contributions his mother had made to the local fire department, he said.
Pickering said he was not sure what the victims were shot with, but said Spengler had an "arsenal of ammunition" and three weapons - a Smith & Wesson .38 caliber revolver, a pump-action Mossberg shotgun, and a .223 Bushmaster rifle with a flash suppressor.
The same model Bushmaster rifle was used in the killing of 20 students and six teachers in Newtown, Connecticut, on December 14.
Authorities with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were checking on the origin of the weapons, he said.
As a convicted felon, Spengler could not legally own guns. Pickering said authorities were examining potential links between the weapons and thefts of guns in the county.
The firefighters killed in the attack were Lieutenant Michael Chiapperini and Tomasz Kaczowka, authorities said.
The injured firefighters were identified as Joseph Hofsetter and Theodore Scardino. Both men were listed in guarded condition at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester.
An off-duty police officer was wounded by shrapnel as he drove past the scene. The officer was treated at a hospital and released.
Seven homes in the neighborhood were destroyed by the fire, and two were uninhabitable, Pickering said.

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Link between pot, psychosis goes both ways in kids

 Marijuana (cannabis) use may be linked to the development of psychotic symptoms in teens - but the reverse could also be true: psychosis in adolescents may be linked to later pot use, according to a new Dutch study.
"We have focused mainly on temporal order; is it the chicken or the egg? As the study shows, it is a bidirectional relationship," wrote the study's lead author Merel Griffith-Lendering, a doctoral candidate at Leiden University in The Netherlands, in an email to Reuters Health.
Previous research established links between marijuana and psychosis, but scientists questioned whether pot use increased the risk of mental illness, or whether people were using pot to ease their psychotic symptoms, such as hallucinations and delusions.
"What is interesting in this study is that both processes are going on at the same time," said Dr. Gregory Seeger, medical director for addiction services at Rochester General Hospital in upstate New York.
He told Reuters Health that researchers have been especially concerned about what tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active property in pot, could do to a teenager's growing brain.
"That's a very vulnerable period of time for brain development," and individuals with a family history of schizophrenia and psychosis seem to be more sensitive to the toxic effects of THC, he said.
A 2010 study of 3,800 Australian teenagers found that those who used marijuana were twice as likely to develop psychosis compared to teens who never smoked pot (see Reuters Health article of March 1, 2010 here:).
But that study also found that those who suffered from hallucinations and delusions when they were younger were also more likely to use pot early on.
CHICKEN v. EGG
For the new study, published in the journal Addiction, the researchers wanted to see which came first: pot or psychosis.
Griffith-Lendering and her colleagues used information on 2,120 Dutch teenagers, who were surveyed about their pot use when they were about 14, 16 and 19 years old.
The teens also took psychosis vulnerability tests that asked - among other things - about their ability to concentrate, their feelings of loneliness and whether they see things other people don't.
Overall, the researchers found 940 teens, or about 44 percent, reported smoking pot, and there was a bidirectional link between pot use and psychosis.
For example, using pot at 16 years old was linked to psychotic symptoms three years later, and psychotic symptoms at age 16 were linked to pot use at age 19.
This was true even when the researchers accounted for mental illness in the kids' families, alcohol use and tobacco use.
Griffith-Lendering said she could not say how much more likely young pot users were to exhibit psychotic symptoms later on.
Also, the new study cannot prove one causes the other. Genetics may also explain the link between pot use and psychosis, said Griffith-Lendering.
"We can say for some people that cannabis comes first and psychosis comes second, but for some people they have some (undiagnosed) psychosis (and) perhaps cannabis makes them feel better," said Dr. Marta Di Forti, of King's College, London, who was not involved with the new research.
Di Forti, who has studied the link between pot and psychosis, told Reuters Health she considers pot a risk factor for psychosis - not a cause.
Seeger, who was also not involved with the new study, said that there needs to be more public awareness of the connection.
"I think the marijuana is not a harmless substance. Especially for teenagers, there should be more of a public health message out there that marijuana has a public health risk," he said.
Griffith-Lendering agrees.
"Given the severity and impact of psychotic disorders, prevention programs should take this information into consideration," she said.

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Central African Republic rebels seize central town, defying foreign troops

 Rebels in Central African Republic seized the central town of Kaga Bandoro on Tuesday despite the presence of foreign troops meant to support the government, a government official said.
The fall of the town, 333 km (207 miles) north of the capital Bangui, came hours after the Seleka rebel alliance said they would suspend their push and means they now have a firm grip on the north and east of the fragile nation.
"They took the town after a short battle despite the surprising lack of action from the Chadian (soldiers)," Rigobert Enza, who works in Kaga Bandoro's mayor's office, told Reuters after he fled to Sibut, the next town to the south.
Foreign soldiers in Kaga Bandoro include Chadians dispatched in the last few weeks to help Bangui tackle the latest rebellion as well as members of a regional stabilization force made up of soldiers from across Central Africa.
Neither rebel nor government officials were available for comment. But the daughter of a second local government official in the town said she had received a call from her father confirming the town had been occupied by rebels.
CAR, a mineral-rich but land-locked former French colony, has been plagued by insecurity since independence in 1960.
President Francois Bozize came to power in 2003 after a brief war and has won two elections since then.
But facing several internal rebellions and the spill-over from conflicts in neighboring Chad and Sudan, he has struggled to stabilize the nation.
"The situation has become very serious," a senior official in the president's camp told Reuters, asking not to be named.
The rebels are made up of fighters from several previous rebel groups and complain that Bozize has failed to stick to the terms of a 2007 peace deal.

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5 Ways This Obama Inauguration Will Be Different

1. Fewer People
President Obama’s inauguration as the first African-American president drew 1.8 million people to the National Mall—some of whom flew across the country and the world to be in D.C. for Obama’s big day. Second inaugurations tend to be more low-key, and Obama’s will be no exception. His second is expected to draw only half as many people, according to the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority. That’s probably a good thing for the National Mall: After Obama’s 2009 swearing in, the National Park Service and its partners cleaned about 100 tons of debris—including blankets, sleeping bags, and lawn chairs.
2. Downsized Celebrations
Although Obama’s first inauguration took place as the economy was cratering, that didn’t dampen the festivities. Bruce Springsteen and Bono rocked on the Mall, and the new president and first lady kicked up their heels at 10 official inaugural balls. But after a prolonged recession and an expensive reelection campaign, the president’s inaugural committee has downsized its plans. There could be as few as two official inaugural balls in 2013, according to The Wall Street Journal, and they’re slated to take place in the staid Washington Convention Center. It remains to be seen whether outside groups—like private companies and advocacy organizations in town—will similarly downsize their own party plans. As in 2009, Obama’s second inauguration will kick off with a day of community service.
3. More Corporate Money
Presidential Inauguration Committees always raise money to pay for the parade, the balls, and other festivities. Back in 2009, Obama sought to limit the influence of outside cash: He refused to accept corporate contributions, and he capped individual donations at $50,000. Four years later, big money is getting a big embrace. Obama is accepting unlimited donations from corporations, although he’s still not accepting donations from super PACs and lobbyists, The New York Times reports. The president’s finance team is offering groups that donate $1 million a special package of inaugural activities; individuals can contribute $250,000 to get the same package.
4. Cementing History, Not Making History
Obama’s reelection proves that the 2008 election wasn’t a fluke. His first victory was groundbreaking; his second gives him time to cement his legacy. Obama’s second inauguration will still allow history buffs to draw some powerful connections, however. He’ll be sworn in three weeks after the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and will deliver his second inaugural address on Martin Luther King Day. It might be hard for Obama (or his speechwriters) to resist referencing the civil war or the civil-rights movement in his remarks.
5. Two Swearing-In Ceremonies
The Constitution requires that new presidents be sworn in on Jan. 20, but that falls on a Sunday this year. It’s long been deemed inappropriate to host a showy inauguration ceremony on the Sabbath, so that means Obama gets to take the oath of office twice: he’ll be sworn in in a private ceremony at the White House on the 20th, and will take part in a big public ceremony at the Capitol on the 21st. The last president to take two oaths in this way?  Ronald Reagan, in 1985.

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Egypt approves constitution drafted by Mursi allies

 Egyptian voters overwhelmingly approved a constitution drafted by President Mohamed Mursi's allies, results announced on Tuesday showed, proving that liberals, leftists and Christians have been powerless to halt the march of Islamists in power.
Final elections commission figures showed the constitution adopted with 63.8 percent of the vote in the referendum held over two days this month, giving Mursi's Islamists their third straight electoral victory since veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak was toppled in a 2011 revolution.
Opposition groups had taken to the streets to block what they see as a move to ram through a charter that mixes politics and religion dangerously and ignores the rights of minorities.
Mursi says the text - Egypt's first constitution since Mubarak's fall - offers enough protection for minorities, and adopting it quickly is necessary to end two years of turmoil and political uncertainty that has wrecked the economy.
"I hope all national powers will now start working together now to build a new Egypt," Murad Ali, a senior official in the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party, told Reuters.
"I see this as the best constitution in Egypt's history."
In a sign that weeks of unrest have taken a further toll on the economy, the government ordered new restrictions on foreign currency apparently designed to prevent capital flight. Leaving or entering with more than $10,000 cash is now banned.
Two years since waves of unrest broke out across the Middle East and North Africa - sweeping away long-entrenched rulers in Tunisia, Libya and Yemen as well as Egypt - well-organized Islamist parties have emerged as the main beneficiaries.
Urban secularists and liberals who were behind the revolts complain that their success has been hijacked.
"We need a better constitution," said Khaled Dawood, an opposition spokesman. "It does not represent all Egyptians."
Mursi's opponents say the new constitution could allow clerics to intervene in lawmaking, while offering scant protections to minorities and women. Mursi dismisses those criticisms, and many Egyptians are fed up with street protest movements that have prevented a return to normality.
Immediately after the announcement, a small group of protesters set tires on fire and blocked traffic near the central Tahrir square, the cradle of Egypt's uprising, but there were no immediate signs of violence or major demonstrations.
Washington, which provides billions of dollars a year in military and other support for Egypt and regards it as a pillar of security in the Middle East, called on Egyptian politicians to bridge divisions and on all sides to reject violence.
"President Mursi, as the democratically elected leader of Egypt, has a special responsibility to move forward in a way that recognizes the urgent need to bridge divisions," State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said. He noted that many Egyptians had voiced "significant concerns" over the constitutional process.
WORSENING ECONOMY
The government says its opponents are worsening the economic crisis by prolonging political upheaval. It has pledged to impose unpopular tax increases and spending cuts to win a loan package from the International Monetary Fund.
The ban on travelling with more than $10,000 in cash followed a pledge by the central bank to take unspecified measures to protect Egyptian banks. Some Egyptians have begun withdrawing their savings in fear of more restrictions.
"I am not going to put any more money in the bank and neither will many of the people I know," said Ayman Osama, father of two young children.
He said he had taken out the equivalent of about $16,000 from his account this week and planned to withdraw more, adding that he had also told his wife to buy more gold jewellery.
The "yes" vote paves the way for a parliamentary election in about two months, setting the stage for another battle between surging Islamists and their fractious opponents.
The final result, announced by the election commission, matched - to the last decimal place - an earlier unofficial tally announced by Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood.
But the opposition said it was disappointed - it had appealed for the result to be amended to reflect what it described as major vote violations during the two-round vote.
Officials said there were no violations serious enough to change the result significantly. "We have seriously investigated all the complaints," said judge Samir Abu el-Matti of the Supreme Election Committee. The final turnout was 32.9 percent.
SENSE OF CRISIS
The referendum has sharpened painful divisions in the Arab world's most populous nation and a growing atmosphere of crisis has gripped Egypt's polarized society.
Anxiety about the economy deepened this week when Standard and Poor's cut Egypt's long-term credit rating. Prime Minister Hisham Kandil told the nation of 83 million on Tuesday the government was committed to fixing the economy.
"The main goals that the government is working towards now is plugging the budget deficit, and working on increasing growth to boost employment rates, curb inflation, and increase the competitiveness of Egyptian exports," he said.
The referendum follows Islamist victories in parliamentary and presidential elections, representing a decisive shift in a country at the heart of the Arab world where Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood was suppressed for generations by military rulers.
However, secularist and liberal opposition members hope they can organize better in time for the next parliamentary vote.
Hossam El-Din Ali, a 35-year-old newspaper vendor in central Cairo, said he agreed the new constitution would help bring some political stability but like many others he feared the possible economic austerity measures lying ahead.
"People don't want higher prices. People are upset about this," he said. "There is recession, things are not moving. But I am wishing for the best, God willing.

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U.S. reprimands some eye centers on LASIK surgery advertising

U.S. health regulators warned five eyecare providers to stop misleading advertising and promotion of refractive lasers used in eye surgery procedures such as LASIK. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration found that the advertisements and promotional materials did not offer consumers adequate information about risks and possible side effects. Warning letters were sent to certain eyecare centers in Indiana, California, Florida, Texas and Georgia. "Providers whose advertising does not provide adequate risk information are finding out today that the FDA is serious about consumer protection," said Steve Silverman, compliance director at FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health in a statement posted on the agency's website. Surgery with refractive lasers is intended to reduce the need for glasses or contact lenses. It involves the removal of corneal tissue by a special laser and permanently reshapes the cornea and changes its focusing power. The most common risks of LASIK surgery include dry eyes, the possible continued need for glasses, visual disturbances such as halos, starbursts or double vision, and even loss of vision. The FDA said it issued letters in 2009 and 2011 to eyecare professionals across the country explaining the agency's concerns about improper advertising and promotion of FDA-approved lasers. It also issued letters in March 2012 to the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery and the American Academy of Ophthalmology, providing additional information about disclosing risk in eyecare professionals' advertisements and promotional materials. "The FDA reminds consumers that eye surgery such as lasik is irreversible, that not all patients will achieve optimal results, and that some patients may need additional procedures," the FDA said.

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12 Weeks is a Long Time to Wait for Breast Cancer Chemotherapy

How long a wait is too long when it comes to treatment of breast cancer? A report published in the Dec. 19 issue of JNCI, Journal of the National Cancer Institute, states that after examining records from 6,622 women, the average time for a woman to wait for adjuvant chemotherapy (chemo given after surgery) for breast cancer is 12 weeks. After my surgery, I waited four weeks before chemotherapy began. Reconstruction delays A main cause for delays in starting chemotherapy after surgery was immediate reconstruction. Flap surgeries allow for immediate breast reconstruction. This type of surgery requires a long recuperation period. Chemotherapy impedes healing. All incisions must be healed and all drains removed before chemotherapy can start. I chose breast implants for reconstruction. This process was partially started during my mastectomy -- consider it partially immediate reconstruction. A tissue expander was put in after they removed my breast. Recovery time is significantly less than with flap surgery. I still had some stitches in when chemo started. Testing and imaging delays Testing such as 21-gene reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction assay testing and MRIs increased the time frame from lumpectomy or mastectomy to the start of chemotherapy. Some doctors use post-surgical MRIs to determine if clear margins were reached. If they are unhappy with the results of the MRI, a second surgery may be required, thus increasing the time before chemo can start. My oncologist did not feel that any further testing other than a MUGA scan was necessary following my mastectomy. The MUGA scan was performed in order to check heart function before starting on treatment with a monoclonal antibody. Even though I had to go through this imaging, it did not delay the start of chemotherapy. Other delays One of the biggest causes of delays in starting chemotherapy treatment in minority women was access to health insurance. Black women who received Medicaid had the longest wait between surgery and the start of chemotherapy when compared to white women with private insurance. This is something that needs to change. When dealing with breast cancer, the faster and more aggressively it is treated, the better the prognosis for survival. There is no reason a woman should have to wait for treatment just because the government is paying for the chemotherapy. Twelve weeks is too long to wait to start chemotherapy after surgery. Imaging should not have an impact on how long a person waits for chemo. Waiting too long, especially with aggressive forms of breast cancer could be the difference between life and death. I had imaging and started chemo just four weeks after my mastectomy. My outcome might have been very different had I been forced to wait an additional eight weeks before I started chemotherapy.

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New Genetic Tests Determines Breast Cancer and Ovarian Cancer Risks

New research has uncovered that mutations in the PPM1D gene is associated with an increased risk of breast cancer and ovarian cancer. Unlike BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations, the PPM1D mutation is not inherited. Instead, the mutation only shows up in the blood when breast cancer or ovarian cancer is present. Medical News Today quotes professor Nazneen Raham as saying, "This is one of our most interesting and exciting discoveries." Important discovery PPM1D mutations are very important. Because of the way they show up in the blood, if you have this mutation you have a 1 in 5 chance of developing breast cancer or ovarian cancer. That is almost twice the average risk for breast cancer and it is 10 times the risk for ovarian cancer. Knowing if you carry this mutation will help women decide on imaging and other preventative treatments. Right now, the only genetic test we have is the BRCA test. As PPM1D shows, BRCA is not the only gene mutation that indicates and increased risk for breast or ovarian cancers. The study Unlike many recent studies that have so few participants it makes the data questionable, this study looked at 7,781 women with either breast cancer or ovarian cancer and compared the PPM1D gene to 5,861 women from the general population. This allows the results to be statistically significant because they looked at so many different results. What the study showed is that in the group of women who had cancer, the researchers found 25 faults in the PPM1D gene. In the group of women without cancer only one fault was found. From a statistical standpoint, those results are quite amazing. This study proves that newer, more detailed gene sequencing is needed to help determine cancer risks. This is especially true for ovarian cancers, sometimes called the silent killer, because most times this type of cancer is not caught until very late stages. Women with a family history of breast cancer or ovarian cancer need more weapons for detection in their arsenal. BRCA testing alone does not cut it. In my case, I have a family history of cancer but no identified genetic issues, like BRCA. I wonder how many lives testing for PPM1D could save.

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Lawmakers play waiting game with "fiscal cliff" deadline in sight

With only a week left before a deadline for the United States to go over a "fiscal cliff," lawmakers played a waiting game on Monday in the hope that someone will produce a plan to avoid harsh budget cuts and higher taxes for most Americans from New Year's Day. Though Republicans and Democrats have spent the better part of a year describing a plunge off the cliff as a looming catastrophe, the nation's capital showed no outward signs of worry, let alone impending calamity. The White House has set up shop in Hawaii, where President Barack Obama is vacationing. The Capitol was deserted and the Treasury Department - which would have to do a lot of last-minute number-crunching with or without a deal - was closed. So were all other federal government offices, with Obama having followed a tradition of declaring the Monday before a Tuesday Christmas a holiday for government employees, notwithstanding the approaching fiscal cliff. Expectations for some 11th-hour rescue focused largely on Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, in part because he has performed the role of legislative wizard in previous stalemates. But McConnell, who is up for re-election in 2014, was shunning the role this year, his spokesman saying that it was now up to the Democrats in the Senate to make the next move. "We don't yet know what Senator Reid will bring to the floor. He is not negotiating with us and the president is out of town," said McConnell's spokesman, referring to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat. "So I just don't know what they're going to do over there," he said. Two-day-old tweets on leadership websites told the story insofar as it was visible to the public. House Speaker John Boehner's referred everyone to McConnell. McConnell's tweet passed the responsibility along to Obama, saying it was a "moment that calls for presidential leadership." Reid's tweet said: "There will be very serious consequences for millions of families if Congress fails to act" on the cliff. The next session of the Senate is set for Thursday, but the issues presented by across-the-board tax hikes and indiscriminate reductions in government spending, were not on the calendar. The House has nothing on its schedule for the week, but members have been told they could be called back at 48 hours notice, making a Thursday return a theoretical possibility. However, aides to the Republican leaders in Congress said there were no talks with Democrats on Monday and none scheduled after negotiations fell off track last week when Boehner failed to persuade House Republicans to accept tax increases on incomes of more than $1 million a year. "Nothing new, Merry Christmas," an aide to Boehner responded when asked if there was any movement on the fiscal cliff. SCALED-BACK EXPECTATIONS If there is some last-minute legislation, Republicans and Democrats agreed on Sunday news shows that it will not be any sort of "grand bargain" encompassing taxes and spending cuts, but most likely a short-term deal putting everything off for a few weeks or months, thereby risking a negative market reaction. A limited agreement would still need bipartisan support, as Obama has said he would veto a bill that does not raise taxes on the wealthiest Americans. On Monday, Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison urged fellow Republicans to be flexible. "We're now at a point where we're not going to get what we think is right for our economy and our country because we don't control government. So we've got to work within the system we have," she told MSNBC. Two bills in Congress could conceivably form the basis for a last-minute stopgap measure. Last spring, Republicans in the House passed a measure that would extend Bush-era tax cuts for everyone, reflecting the party's deep reluctance to increase taxes. The Democratic-controlled Senate passed a bill in August, extending lower tax rates for everyone except the wealthiest Americans - a group defined at that point as households with a net income of $250,000 or above. Obama has since increased that to $400,000 a year, in an effort to win Republican support. Analysts say Democrats might be able to get the backing of enough Republicans in both the House and Senate, especially if they are willing to raise the number to $500,000. Under that scenario, lawmakers might also put off spending cuts of $109 billion that would take effect from January and agree to Republican demands for cuts in entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, the government-run health insurance plans for seniors and the poor. However, with only a few work days left in Congress after Christmas, there is a good chance that no deal can be worked out and tax rates would then go up, at least briefly, until an agreement is reached in Washington. "We may go off the cliff on January 1, but we would correct that very quickly thereafter," Democratic Representative John Yarmuth told MSNBC. The prospects of the United States going over the fiscal cliff dampened enthusiasm on Wall Street for a "Santa rally" in the holiday season, when stocks traditionally rise. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped 51.76 points, or 0.39 percent, in Monday's shortened holiday session. Failure to work out tax rates in the coming days would cause chaos at the Internal Revenue Service, said analyst Chris Krueger of Guggenheim Securities. "Next weekend is going to be a total, total debacle," he said. The IRS is unlikely to have enough time to revise its tables for withholding taxes. "The withholding tables are sort of like an aircraft carrier, you can't turn the thing on a dime." he said.

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Kuwait urges Iran to address worries on nuclear plant

Kuwait urged neighboring Iran on Monday to cooperate more with the U.N. nuclear watchdog to allay Gulf Arab concerns about the safety of an Iranian nuclear power plant that lies just across the waterway from the emirate. The emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah, said a recent shutdown at the Bushehr plant indicated Tehran had to work with the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy (IAEA) to ensure the safety of the facility near the coastal town of Bushehr. He was speaking in Bahrain at the annual summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a grouping of six oil-exporting Gulf Arab countries at odds with Tehran over a series of issues and who see the Islamic Republic as a rival for regional influence. Bushehr, a Russian-built symbol of what Iran calls its peaceful nuclear ambitions, was shut down in October to limit any damage after stray bolts were found beneath its fuel cells, a Russian nuclear industry source said in November. The explanation for the procedure at the 1,000-megawatt plant contradicted assurances by Iran that nothing unexpected had happened and that removing nuclear fuel from the plant was part of a normal procedure. Sheikh Sabah said: "The news that was reported recently about the technical failure that hit the Bushehr reactor confirms what we mentioned about the importance of Iranian cooperation with the IAEA, and committing to its criteria and rule, to ensure the safety of the region's states and its people from any effect of radioactivity." LONG-STANDING DISPUTE Iran is the only country with an operating nuclear power plant that is not part of the 75-nation Convention on Nuclear Safety, which was negotiated after the 1986 nuclear disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear plant. Although the West suspects the Islamic Republic of trying to develop the means to build nuclear arms - a charge it denies - Bushehr is not considered a major proliferation risk by Western states, whose fears are focused on sites where Iran has defied global pressure by enriching uranium beyond levels needed to fuel civilian atomic power plants. Nevertheless Western officials voiced concern in November about what they described as an unexpected unloading of fuel at Bushehr and said Tehran, which has dismissed it as a normal step, must clarify the issue. Iran's ambassador to the IAEA said in November that Tehran was determined to make sure safety at Bushehr was guaranteed after the plant is turned over to Iranian operators. The plant, whose start-up has been delayed for years, was finally plugged into Iran's national grid in September 2011, a move intended to end protracted delays in its construction. The plant's Russian builder was quoted in October as saying Bushehr would be formally "handed over for use" to Iran in March 2013. Sheikh Sabah also appealed to Iran to resolve separate long-standing disputes with GCC members, who comprise Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Kuwait. "We renew our calls to our brothers in Iran to respond to our invitations to put an end to pending issues between the GCC countries and Iran ... through direct negotiations or by resorting to international arbitration," he said. Bahrain has repeatedly accused Tehran of meddling in its internal politics. Saudi Arabia has complained about alleged border breaches by Iran, and the UAE has a long-standing dispute with the Shi'ite Muslim power over three Gulf islands. Iran denies seeking subvert Bahrain or any other Gulf Arab state, and says its intentions in the region are purely peaceful.

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