Barack Obama flags 'significant' sanctions against IranLink to this video  Stepping up the pressure on Iran's leaders at an impromptu appearance in the White House briefing room, Mr Obama said the United States and five other world powers were "moving along fairly quickly" to tighten the screws on Teheran. He indicated that his administration had made headway in persuading Russia to overcome its traditional resistance to imposing new sanctions on Iran, even if he was uncertain about whether China would join the other powers. China now appears to be the sole holdout on sanctions among the five veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council -- the other four are the United States, Russia, Britain and France. Germany is the sixth power involved in the negotiations, but is not a Security Council permanent member. Iran announced that it has begun work to enrich uranium to 20 per cent, which it says is for a medical research reactor in Teheran. The move suggested Iran was spurning a four-month-old proposal by the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to ship most of its stocks of 3.5-per cent enriched uranium abroad to be further upgraded to fuel the reactor. Experts say that once Iran enriches uranium to 20 per cent, it can proceed to the 93 per cent needed to produce nuclear weapons since the technology is the same. Iran maintains the enrichment is purely for civilian energy purposes. "Despite the posturing that the nuclear power is only for civilian use... they in fact continue to pursue a course that would lead to weaponization, and that is not acceptable to the international community," Mr Obama said. After trying to engage Iranian leaders and persuade them to accept the IAEA deal to defuse the crisis, Mr Obama said the world must be…

   The lessons of Iraq   Telegraph View:

Comments 10 | Comment on this article  It has been more than six years since George W Bush's infamous "Mission Accomplished" sign prematurely implied an end to America's entanglement in Iraq. Today, US forces are finally taking their most significant step yet towards withdrawal, moving their forces to bases away from population centres. The troops will still be patrolling, but will from now on become a steeply diminishing part of the daily lives of ordinary Iraqis.As one foreign invader moves out, so Iraq welcomes the next. Foreign oil companies are already discussing the development of the country's vast natural wealth. The subsequent spoils will have to be divided between Iraq's forever-feuding groups, Shia, Sunni and Kurd; and that serves as a reminder that while the country may be a better place than it was under Saddam Hussein, many of its problems have barely been tackled. It is not even clear that the fragile Iraqi security forces can protect their people. The Americans have issues of their own to confront. After the initial success of Operation Iraqi Freedom, they made some serious mistakes in this venture. In particular, there were few plans made for the post-invasion administration of the nation, while the disbanding of the Iraqi armed forces created a legion of fighters willing to enmesh the coalition in a protracted, and devastating, campaign. The resulting loss of US prestige saw belligerents from Iran to North Korea first taunt, and then test the resolve, of what remains the world's most powerful nation.The worry now is what happens when a chastened America is forced into decisive and far-reaching action again. Barack Obama knows that he could easily have to replace rhetoric with deeds, in particular in the Middle…

   From Times of London Online August 12, 2009   UBS set to disclose US clients in tax evasion case Christine Seib in New York    UBS, the Swiss bank, is expected to disclose the identities of thousands of its American clients with offshore accounts after agreeing a settlement with the US Department of Justice (DoJ) over allegations of tax evasion. Stuart Gibson, an attorney for the DoJ, said this morning that the American and Swiss Governments had initialled an agreement that will end the DoJ's pursuit of UBS. In a telephone conference with Judge Alan Gold, who had been due to hear the case in a Miami court, Mr Gibson said only that the Governments would soon reach a final accord. He gave no further details of the settlement. Lawyers speculated that the DoJ was unlikely to have backed away from a legal battle without being assured that it would receive a large chunk of the information that it had sought. The DoJ sued UBS in February for the names of 52,000 Americans with Swiss bank accounts, which the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the American tax authority, suspected were being used to evade taxes. Under US law, citizens must provide the IRS with information on amounts over $10,000 (£6,000) held in offshore bank accounts. UBS had refused to hand over the names, arguing that to do so would force it to violate strict Swiss banking secrecy laws. The bank insisted that the issue of disclosure needed to be resolved between Switzerland and the US. Switzerland, meanwhile, threatened to seize the names itself rather than allow them to be give up to the IRS. Switzerland will co-operate with information requests if there is evidence of wrongdoing, but believed that the IRS was on…

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  ‘Yes’ for Texas Governor Is ‘No’ to Washington LM Otero/Associated PressGov. Rick Perry addressed supporters at his primary night party in Driftwood, Tex. He beat two Republican primary opponents.  Read Article