The leader of a Somali pirate group holding a Saudi-owned supertanker carrying $100 million in oil has denied reports the group has moved the vessel away from the coast of the central Somali town of Haradhere, where it had been anchored for more than a week. Eyewitnesses said the pirates moved the ship after Islamist militants threatened to rescue the supertanker by force. VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu has this exclusive story from our East Africa Bureau in Nairobi.
Speaking to VOA by satellite telephone aboard the hijacked supertanker, the pirate leader, …

VIENNA (Reuters) – An inquiry by the U.N. nuclear watchdog into alleged atom bomb research by Iran has degenerated into a silent standoff a few months after Tehran asserted “the matter is over,” U.N. officials said on Wednesday.
“We had gridlock before but until September at least we were talking to each other. Now it’s worse. There is no communication whatsoever, no progress regarding possible military dimensions in their program,” a senior United Nations official said.

An independent report on the war between Russia and Georgia in August, is calling for an investigation into the conduct of all parties during the hostilities. The London-based human rights organization, Amnesty International, says it is concerned serious rights violations took place at the time.
Amnesty says all sides in the August conflict may have committed abuses. In its new report, Amnesty says Georgian and Russian forces and militia fighters in the breakaway South Ossetia region should be investigated for war crimes during the conflict.

A car bomb has killed one of Israel’s most prominent crime bosses in Tel Aviv, Israel’s Haaretz newspaper reports.
Israeli police identified the dead man on Monday as Yaakov Alperon, the head of one of the country’s most powerful crime families.
Alperon is the most senior figure to be killed and the latest casualty of ongoing gang wars that have left scores of people dead.

The secretary-general of the CIS Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), Nikolai Bordyuzha, recently announced the planned formation of an international force in Central Asia that “should be prepared to repel any threat.”
On November 9, after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev submitted an agreement on the expected 5,000-strong force to the State Duma for approval, Bordyuzha said that the force is to be formed immediately upon the agreement’s ratification by all participating states.

MOSCOW (RIA Novosti) – Russia started developing tactical laser weapons before the United States and has several prototypes of high-precision combat chemical lasers in its arsenal, a defense industry source said on Tuesday.
The Boeing Company said recently it had test-fired a high-energy chemical laser fitted aboard a C-130H aircraft for the first time. The successful ground tests, “a key milestone for the Advanced Tactical Laser Advanced Concept Technology Demonstration program,” took place on May 13 at the Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico.

The Mikoyan MiG-29 is a 4th generation jet fighter aircraft designed for an air superiority role in the Soviet Union. Developed in the 1970s by the Mikoyan design bureau, it entered service with the Soviet Air Force in 1983, and remains in use by the Russian Air Force as well as in many other nations. NATO’s reporting name for the MiG-29 is “Fulcrum”, which was unofficially used by Soviet pilots in service. It was developed to counter new American fighters such as the F-16 Fighting Falcon, and the F-15 Eagle.
Incoming …

Russia has sold 12 MiG-29 fighter jets to Sudan, the Sudanese defense minister, Abdel Rahim Mohammed Hussein, said during a visit to Moscow on Friday, according to Russian news agencies.

Shimon Peres is the ninth President of the State of Israel.

Reporting from Beirut — U.S. officials Wednesday condemned Iran for test-firing a long-range surface-to-surface missile, which they called a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions and a threat to other countries.
Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar earlier in the day announced the successful launch of a new class of two-stage, solid-fuel rockets called the Sejil. Iranians say the domestically manufactured weapon is more accurate than its liquid-fueled predecessors and has a range of 1,200 miles, which puts Israel and parts of Europe within striking distance.