To the Point

Iran's Nuclear Plans

Just as Germany, Britain and France warned of international penalties if Iran refuses to change its plans for re-starting nuclear development, an ultra-conservative populist today became the new President of Iran. At the same time, the latest US intelligence estimate says Iran is 10 years away from a possible atom bomb, twice as far as previously believed. For three years, the Bush Administration has been saying that the Iran's nuclear goal is not to generate electrical power but make an atom bomb. Vice President Cheney has said that Israel might stage a pre-emptive strike. Is there more time for diplomacy than the Bush White House has warned? Will Europe push for Security Council sanctions? What are the prospects for pre-emptive military action? We hear from journalists, and experts on Iran and the Middle East, including Iran's first ambassador to the United Nations. Making News: Fourteen US Troops Die in Haditha Roadside Bomb Blast Brook Park, Ohio is in mourning for 14 Marines killed today near Haditha, northwest of Baghdad. On Monday, six other Marines from Brook Park were killed in the same region. Neil MacDonald, who is reporting on the war in Iraq for the Christian Science Monitor, says continuing violence disproves American insistence that Iraq's insurgency is diminishing. Reporter's Notebook: Shuttle Discovery's In-Orbit Repair Successful Astronaut Stephen Robinson did today what no one has done before. NASA called his in-orbit repair of the Shuttle Discovery a "choreograph of delicate robotics." "Heart pounding" is one of the terms being used by reporters. Michael Cabbage, co-author of Comm Check: The Final Flight of Shuttle Columbia, is in Houston as Aerospace Editor of the Orlando Sentinel. Cabbage says today's repair is indicative of NASA's new mindset.