NEWS,10.10.2012

US sends military troops to Jordan

The United States has sent military troops to the Jordan-Syria border to help build a headquarters in Jordan and bolster that country's military capabilities in the event that violence escalates along its border with Syria, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said on Wednesday.Speaking at a Nato conference of defence ministers in Brussels, Panetta said the US has been working with Jordan to monitor chemical and biological weapons sites in Syria and also to help Jordan deal with refugees pouring over the border from Syria.But the revelation of US military personnel so close to the 19-month-old Syrian conflict suggests an escalation in the US military involvement in the conflict, even as Washington pushes back on any suggestion of a direct intervention in Syria.It also follows several days of shelling between Turkey and Syria, an indication that the civil war could spill across Syria's borders and become a regional conflict.Strong relationship"We have a group of our forces there working to help build a headquarters there and to ensure that we make the relationship between the United States and Jordan a strong one so that we can deal with all the possible consequences of what's happening in Syria," Panetta said.The development comes with the US presidential election less than a month away, and at a time when Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee, has been criticising President Barack Obama's foreign policy, accusing the administration of embracing too passive a stance in the convulsive Mideast region.The defence secretary and other administration officials have expressed concern about Syrian President Bashar Assad's arsenal of chemical weapons. Panetta said last week that the United States believes that while the weapons are still secure, intelligence suggests the regime might have moved the weapons to protect them. The Obama administration has said that Assad's use of chemical weapons would be a "red line" that would change the US policy of providing only non-lethal aid to the rebels seeking to topple him.Increased co-operationPentagon press secretary George Little, travelling with Panetta, said the US and Jordan agreed that "increased co-operation and more detailed planning are necessary in order to respond to the severe consequences of the Assad regime's brutality".He said the US has provided medical kits, water tanks, and other forms of humanitarian aid to help Jordanians assist Syrian refugees fleeing into their country.Little said the military personnel were there to help Jordan with the flood of Syrian refugees over its borders and the security of Syria's stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons."As we've said before, we have been planning for various contingencies, both unilaterally and with our regional partners," Little said in a written statement. "There are various scenarios in which the Assad regime's reprehensible actions could affect our partners in the region. For this reason and many others, we are always working on our contingency planning, for which we consult with our friends."A US defence official in Washington said the forces are made up of 100 military planners and other personnel who stayed on in Jordan after attending an annual exercise in May, and several dozen more have flown in since, operating from a joint US-Jordanian military centre north of Amman that Americans have used for years.He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to talk about the mission on the record.Syrian refugeesIn Jordan, the biggest problem for now seems to be the strain put on the country's meagre resources by the estimated 200 000 Syrian refugees who have flooded across the border - the largest fleeing to any country.Several dozen refugees in Jordan rioted in their desert border camp of Zaatari early this month, destroying tents and medicine and leaving scores of refugee families out in the night cold.Jordanian men also are moving the other way across the border - joining what intelligence officials have estimated to be around 2 000 foreigners fighting alongside Syrian rebels trying to topple Assad. A Jordanian border guard was wounded after armed men - believed trying to go fight - exchanged gunfire at the northern frontier.Turkey has reinforced its border with artillery guns and deployed more fighter jets to an air base close to the border region after an errant Syrian mortar shell killed five people in a Turkish border town last week and Turkey retaliated with artillery strikes.Turkey's military chief General Necdet Ozel vowed on Wednesday to respond with more force to any further shelling from Syria, keeping up the pressure on its southern neighbor a day after Nato said it stood ready to defend Turkey.

 

IMF: Europe must restore confidence

Europe must do more to tackle its fiscal crisis, which is heaping extra pressure on an already-strained global financial system, the International Monetary Fund warned in a new report on Wednesday.Despite some new policy measures, among them a bond-buying programme aimed at helping debt-riddled nations tame their borrowing costs, the risks of a world credit crunch and recession loom, the IMF said."(European) policymakers need to take additional measures to restore confidence," said the Fund's Global Financial Stability Report ahead of its annual meeting this week in Tokyo and a day after cutting its global growth forecasts."Risks to global financial stability have increased and financial markets have been volatile as European policymakers grapple with the ongoing crisis," it added.The report comes a week after IMF head Christine Lagarde urged eurozone leaders to move fast to resolve the bloc's debt crisis. "No one has the luxury of time, this is really urgent," she told the French daily Le Figaro."The cost of solutions increases as time passes," she added.The European Central Bank last month announced a programme to buy the government bonds of debt-ridden eurozone nations under strict conditions but it remains unclear whether troubled countries, notably Spain, will accept the offer."If there is no demand and if this is related to domestic political considerations, that would be unfortunate," Jose Vinals, director of the IMF's monetary and capital markets department, told a news briefing in Tokyo as the report was released Wednesday.The eurozone launched Monday its much-awaited €500bn European Stability Mechanism rescue fund, which is seen as a major step in the bloc's defences against a debt crisis that has pushed it back into recession."(It) gives a lot of comfort that the size of the firewall has become sufficiently flexible and that makes a big difference," Vinals said.The report's recommendations include cutting public debt and deficits "in a way that supports growth" and a "clean-up of the banking sector, including recapitalising or restructuring viable banks and resolving nonviable ones".It also warned that a "further deterioration in the euro area crisis is the biggest risk to global financial stability, but rising imbalances elsewhere are also a cause for concern".The United States and Japan both face looming fiscal hurdles, which, if not cleared, could upset the world financial system, the report said."Both countries require medium-term deficit reduction plans that protect growth and reassure financial markets," it said.Emerging economies have fared relatively well through the several tumultuous years of global economic uncertainty, but they "need to guard against potential shockwaves from the euro area crisis, while managing slowing growth in their own economies".On Tuesday, the IMF's added to concerns about the health of the global economy, warning of a possible recession and cutting back its growth forecast for this year to 3.3%, from July's estimate of 3.5%.Growth will only hit 3.6% next year - lower than the 3.9% predicted in July - as even powerful emerging economies like China, India and Brazil hit the brakes, the Fund said.But those assumptions are based on Europe's leaders tackling the debt crisis and US politicians backing off harsh spending cuts and tax hikes slated for January 2013."Failure to act on either issue would make growth prospects far worse," the Fund said in the World Economic Outlook report.

IMF chides EU for 'critically incomplete' crisis response

The International Monetary Fund has urged European policymakers to deepen the financial and fiscal ties within the euro area with some urgency to restore sagging confidence in the global financial system.The IMF's stark tone on the euro area debt crisis in its semi-annual checkup of the world's financial health was in marked contrast to the mood in Europe, where a European Central Bank decision to buy bonds of countries that accept an assistance programme has removed immediate concerns about the survival of the euro."Despite many important steps already taken by policymakers, this agenda remains critically incomplete, exposing the euro area to a downward spiral of capital flight, breakup fears and economic decline," the IMF said in its Global Financial Stability Report (GFSR) released today.It said the euro area's debt crisis was the main threat to global financial stability, which had weakened in the last six months to leave confidence "very fragile".The euro area's plodding progress means European banks are likely to offload $2.8 trillion in assets over two years to cut their risk exposure, an increase of $200 billion from a prediction six months ago, the IMF estimated. That could shrink credit supply in the periphery by 9% by the end of 2013, crimping economic growth.The report adds to a gloomy backdrop ahead of the IMF's semi-annual meeting to be held in Tokyo later this week, which will gather the world's financial leaders.On Tuesday, the Fund said the global economic slowdown was worsening as it cut its growth forecasts for the second time since April and warned US and European policymakers that failure to fix their economic ills would prolong the slump.A scenario where Europe muddles through, addressing haphazardly each new flare-up in the protracted crisis rather than adopting a comprehensive plan, would prove costly, Jose Vinals, director of the IMF's monetary and capital markets department and the main author of the financial stability report, said."The more time that goes by without a complete solution, the more are the eventual costs for everybody of resolving the crisis," he told  in an interview.Europe's troubles should also serve as a lesson to the heavily indebted United States and Japan that delaying the necessary policy adjustments until markets force their hands would lead to "harsher economic outcomes", Vinals told a briefing."We should not let the current market conditions, which have improved, lead to a false sense of security," he said.Still, ECB Vice-President Vitor Constancio said his message to the IMF and World Bank gatherings is that Europe has made much progress in recent months."That should be encouraging for the world economy," he told Reuters in Tokyo.Measures carried out by Europe included an unprecedented strengthening of economic governance and deep structural reforms, said Simon O'Connor, the European Commission's spokesman on economic and monetary affairs."No one should underestimate how far Europe has come since the start of the crisis," he said in reaction to the IMF report.Shrinking balance sheets A German finance ministry source said in Berlin that the EU's most powerful member would strive to ensure that the debt crisis was not the sole focus of the IMF meeting.Last week, Canada's Finance Minister Jim Flaherty expressed his latest sign of frustration over progress in resolving the crisis by saying it represented a "clear and present danger".US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said on Tuesday that resolving the euro area's debt problems would take time."Even if one is optimistic about the will and capacity to manage through this, you are still likely to see a very, very challenging growth environment in Europe for a long period of time," Geithner said during a visit to New Delhi.On Tuesday, ECB President Mario Draghi said the bond buying programme, although not yet in operation, provided a "fully effective backstop" for the euro zone to avoid destructive scenarios and had already helped calm market fears.The IMF acknowledged that the ECB's bond buying agreement had restored some market confidence and narrowed the spread between core and peripheral debt in the region.But private investors still lacked confidence in peripheral European markets and the difference between the yields on peripheral and core debt from banks and companies remained high, threatening any recovery, it said.Under current policies, the IMF estimated European banks will shed $2.8 trillion in assets between the third quarter of 2011 and the end of 2013, higher than the $2.6 trillion it had predicted in April, further squeezing credit availability.

Wall Street stocks fall

US stocks fell on Wednesday, a day after earnings season opened with Dow component Alcoa posting a quarterly net loss.Shares of Alcoa dropped 4.5% after the company predicted China's slowing growth will weaken worldwide demand for aluminium.Shares of Chevron shed 4.4% after it said third-quarter earnings will be "substantially" lower than in the previous quarter.In afternoon trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 0.79%, the Standard & Poor's 500 declined 0.55%, while the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 0.48%."The fear is that this is going to be a really bad earnings season," Hank Smith, chief investment officer at Haverford Trust in Radnor, Pennsylvania, told Bloomberg News. "If S&P 500 earnings come in better than expectations, the markets are going to view that positively. We're off to a good start but we've got a long way to go," he said.Investors are nervous about the recent rally in equity markets."The temptation to sell is out there," John Brady, managing director of RJ O'Brien & Associates in Chicago, told Reuters."Equities have had a tremendous year, and the outlook is very unclear. So why not reduce risk? It's hard to imagine an additional 20% rally from here in the next three or four months," said Brady.Indeed, the American economy "generally expanded modestly since the last report," the Federal Reserve said in its latest Beige Book business survey based on reports from 12 district Fed banks."Consumer spending was generally reported to be flat to up slightly since the last report," according to the Fed. "Vehicle sales were also generally characterised as stable but up from a year earlier and generally at favourable levels," while "residential real estate conditions improved since the last report."However, "employment conditions were little changed since the last report."In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index finished the day with a 0.6% slump from the previous close. Benchmark indexes dropped also in Germany, the UK and France.Some investors are concerned that the current valuations are not justified by the outlook for earnings.The Stoxx 600 is trading at 11.9 times the estimated earnings of its companies, higher than its five-year average of 11.5, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The gauge last month reached a price multiple of 12.3, the highest since 2010.Among other sombre notes was a surprise slump in China's car sales, the latest sign that the pace of growth in the world's second-largest economy is flagging.The concern about earnings and equity valuations helped the US Treasury's auction of US$21 billion in 10-year debt draw solid demand."The 10-year note auction was very stellar-coming in better than expected-and equities are weak, giving support to Treasuries," Larry Milstein, managing director in New York of government-debt trading at RW Pressprich & Co, a fixed- income broker and dealer for institutional investors, told Bloomberg."There is still pretty significant demand out there still for yields and safety," he said.To be sure, it was not all bad news.Shares of Wal-Mart climbed to a record US$76.8. The world's largest retailer said it is seeing growth in both large and small US stores and has had a strong start to layaway sales ahead of the holiday season, according to Reuters.Costco, meanwhile, also provided investors with a good reason to buy the stock, last up 2.7%, as the company posted better-than-expected quarterly earnings.

NEWS,22.09.2012

Afghanistan in flux as U.S. surge troops exit

The U.S. military says it has now fully withdrawn the last of the 33,000 "surge troops" sent to pacify Afghanistan two years ago, but they are leaving behind an uncertain landscape of rising violence and political instability that threaten to undo considerable gains in security, particularly in the former Taliban strongholds in the south and southwest.As the troops head for home, a good week ahead of schedule, the U.S. coalition and its Afghan partners are bedeviled by a host of problems.The tempo and audacity of Taliban attacks have increased. Insider killings of Americans by Afghan troops have raised tensions between the allies, forcing severe cutbacks in strategically vital training programs. Both governments are arguing publicly over whether to keep battlefield prisoners locked up without trial, while nervous officials on all sides are worrying that riots over an inflammatory anti-Muslim video, which have killed dozens in other countries, will break out in Afghanistan.Friday's milestone, which still leaves 68,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, was announced on the other side of the planet by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, during a trip to New Zealand, while both U.S. and Afghan officials in Kabul studiously ignored the moment, at least in public.Some pro-government Afghans boasted it showed their own forces were ready to take over, while pro-Taliban forces exulted that they were not, but most Afghans just worried about what it would really mean for the final two years of the U.S. presence in the country."What did the surge give us?" a senior U.S. official reflected Friday, speaking anonymously as a matter of military policy. "We're going to hit a point where, I won't say that's as good as it gets, but now it's up to them to hold what we gave them. Now, really, it's Karzai's turn."No one claimed there was not a great deal yet to be done against an insurgency that its foes describe as tenacious and determined. "They're not going to go away for years," the senior official said. "Every fighting season the Taliban, or some number of them, come out of the corner and they're ready to fight again."Both U.S. and Afghan officials have acknowledged the seriousness of the green on blue attacks, which this year have seen the killings of more than 50 U.S. soldiers at the hands of their Afghan allies.

US Navy's new floating base gets a workout in Gulf 

A new, key addition to American-led naval efforts to ensure Mideast oil keeps flowing has emerged as an unusual mix of a ship combining decades' worth of wear and tear with state-of-the-art technology and a largely civilian crew.After winning a reprieve from the scrapyard, the USS Ponce was reborn through a rush retrofit earlier this year and turned into a floating base prowling the waters of the Persian Gulf. It is now getting its biggest workout since refurbishment as the centerpiece for sweeping naval exercises under way that serve as a very public warning to Iran. The Islamic Republic has threatened to shut the Gulf's entrance at the Strait of Hormuz, the route for a fifth of the world's oil supplies, and would likely use mines to do so.Anti-mine divers on practice drills deployed in small boats off the Ponce's stern gate early Saturday, and MH-53 minesweeping helicopters launched from the ship kicked up sea spray as they hauled mine-detecting equipment through the water. Later in the day, a U.S. destroyer pulled alongside, fighter jets roared past and gunners fired thunderous rounds from .50 caliber machine guns during a simulated encounter with a hostile vessel.Senior Navy officials in the Gulf are quick to downplay talk of conflict with Iran, which is locked in a dispute with the U.S. and its allies over Tehran's disputed nuclear program. The West suspects Iran aims to develop a nuclear weapon; Tehran denies the charges.U.S. military officials in the region insist the exercises, which include forces from more than 30 countries, are defensive and not directed at any country. They prefer to focus instead on the Ponce's role as an innovative new tool to help ensure security in the region, and on the need to train with allies to keep sea lanes open.Still, the message is clear."Any extremist group, any country that puts mines in the water would be cautioned" by the exercises, said Marine Gen. James R. Mattis, the U.S. Central Command chief, during his first visit onboard the Ponce since it deployed June 1. "We do have the means to take mines out of the water if they go in. We will open the waterways to freedom of navigation."Military leaders believe the Norfolk, Va.-based Ponce is central to that mission.More than half the length of most U.S. aircraft carriers, the Ponce can accommodate multiple helicopters on deck and small boats in a well deck below.The ship was originally an amphibious transport dock built at the height of the Vietnam War. Those types of vessels are typically used to carry landing forces of Marines.It's now known as the Navy's first "afloat forward staging base-interim," a name given because the Ponce is meant to be a stopgap until a similar base built from scratch is delivered. That won't happen until at least 2015."This will more or less act as a test for using floating platforms in the sea for military operations," Riad Kahwaji, chief executive of the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis, said of the reconfigured Ponce. "There'll be a lot of defense industry officials observing the performance of this."Much of the original ship remains, including the tight Marine-style bunks stacked four high from floor to ceiling in some parts of the ship. But there are plenty of 21st Century additions too.Berths for around 100 people were removed and replaced with a high-tech joint operations center, where streaming video and data feeds can be shown on flat-screen displays.Powerful MK-38 guns installed during conversion include remotely controlled digital cameras that let operators zoom in on far-off targets of interest. And a ScanEagle surveillance drone launched from and recovered by the ship keeps an eye on the sea for miles around all day long.In its new role, the Ponce is initially intended to be a close-to-the-action support hub for mine-clearing ships, coastal patrol vessels and helicopters. Ships can take on fuel and supplies without having to return to port, and a wide range of repairs can be handled by machinists onboard. That means far less downtime for minesweepers and other vessels using the Ponce as a stopping-off point, according to analysts and Navy officials.The Ponce's Spartan accommodation can also handle hundreds of additional personnel, such as the French anti-mine divers in distinctive camouflage shorts currently onboard. In theory, special operations forces could also fill bunks aboard the Ponce, which is able to launch the small boats and helicopters they often use.There is also the benefit of not needing to secure approval from allied countries where U.S. troops are based before conducting operations from an offshore staging base such as the Ponce."A country that's believed to be friendly to the U.S. could overnight become hostile to the U.S., and this could pose a threat to U.S. operations," Kahwaji said, citing recent violence directed at American embassies in response to an anti-Islam film.Although it is under the command of a Navy captain, most of the Ponce's crew are civilians. It has more than 155 civilian crew members from the Military Sealift Command and 55 Navy sailors, according to the ship's commanding officer, Capt. Jon Rodgers. The number of civilian crew can fluctuate depending on who is onboard.The MSC is normally responsible for running about 110 supply ships and other non-combat vessels for the Navy, but the Ponce's hybrid crew is unusual.Visitors arriving by helicopter are met on the flight deck by some crew in uniform and others in civilian coveralls. Civilian employees keep the floors and toilets clean, and dish out corned beef hash and French toast on the mess deck. Some of the MSC crew members have dreadlocks  a no-no for enlisted sailors and many are in their 40s or beyond. A handful are older than 60.It's not just the civilian crew that's showing its age. The Ponce is among the Navy's oldest ships. Construction began in 1966, and it was commissioned during the Nixon administration in 1971.Rust is prevalent throughout the ship, and many of the fittings retain a Cold War feel."Just walk around and you can see," said Kevin Chavis, 45, a retired Navy electronics specialist from Brooklyn who is now part of the Ponce's civilian crew. "Yeah, it's old. But just like a car, if you change the filters and the oil, it'll keep running."

Chavez's record: an oil bonanza squandered?

 

On the streets of Caracas, vast slums blanket the hillsides while squatters hang laundry in the windows of abandoned buildings. Trash-strewn alleys are riddled with potholes and lined with broken streetlamps. The city's main waterway, the polluted Guaire River, is known more for sewage than swimming.While oil has ushered in spectacular construction projects for glittering Middle Eastern cities, including the world's tallest building in Dubai and plans for branches of the Louvre and Guggenheim museums in Abu Dhabi, it's brought relatively meager changes to Venezuela, which holds the world's largest proven oil reserves.Nearly 14 years after President Hugo Chavez took office, and despite the biggest oil bonanza in Venezuela's history, there's little outward sign of the nearly one trillion petrodollars that have flowed into the country.Venezuela has undoubtedly changed during Chavez's tenure. The populist president has used the oil wealth to buttress his support through cash handouts, state-run grocery stores and a gamut of other social programs. With more money in the economy, incomes are higher and the number of people living in poverty has fallen.Unemployment has dropped from more than 13 percent in 1999 to about 8 percent. The country has also achieved rapid improvement on the U.N. Human Development Index, which measures a range of indicators from living standards to life expectancy."We're applying a successful program successful politically, successful socially, successful economically," Chavez said at a news conference. "With flaws, of course, but it's successful. We're laying the foundations of a historic project that will take our entire lifetime."All of which makes him a tough incumbent to beat in the upcoming Oct. 7 election.Yet some experts say Chavez could have done much more to improve the country's infrastructure, boost its economy and invest in the very oil industry that keeps Venezuela afloat."It's overwhelmingly clear that Venezuela has wasted the windfall," said Francisco Monaldi, an economist and director of the International Center of Energy and the Environment at Caracas' IESA business school. "You should have had much greater economic growth, much greater reduction of poverty."Among Latin American countries, the economies of Brazil, Chile, Peru and Argentina all have expanded more rapidly than Venezuela's since Chavez took office in 1999, recording average growth between 3 and 5 percent a year.Venezuela, by contrast, averaged a 2.8 percent annual increase of gross domestic product between 1999 and 2011, according to International Monetary Fund figures. By that measure, the country was outperformed by every other member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries except Libya. Even war-torn Iraq posted higher growth.Some Venezuelans, such as tennis instructor Naybeth Figueroa, say Chavez has simply channeled money toward his "Chavista" supporters while neglecting deeply ingrained problems such as soaring murder rates, inflation, crumbling infrastructure and poor government services. Venezuela now ranks among the most violent and corrupt places on earth."The country is falling to pieces," Figueroa said. "Where is the oil money going?"On a rutted unpaved road in the countryside outside Caracas, unemployed housewife Moreli Gonzalez lives in a shack with a dirt floor and walls made of rusting sheets of zinc. She is thankful to Chavez that she now receives a $280-a-month cash benefit through a program called "Mothers of the Neighborhood Mission.""Now we have everything," said Gonzalez, who credits a government education program with helping her learn to read and a state-run grocery down the road that has made food more affordable."We eat better," she said, showing off cupboards filled with bags of rice and pasta. "My children didn't used to eat snacks. Now they eat well."

Finding Poland's sunken royal treasures

Capitalizing on low water levels in Warsaw's Vistula River, police are teaming up with archaeologists to recover gigantic marble and alabaster treasures that apparently were stolen from royals in Poland by Swedish invaders in the mid-17th century.A police Mi-8 helicopter hovered over a riverbed on Thursday, lifting ornaments such as the centerpiece of a fountain with water outlets decorated with satyr-like faces.For police, it was gratifying to provide the chopper and assist Warsaw University archaeologists in "this very important mission of retrievingpriceless national treasures,"saidMariusz Mrozek, a spokesman for Warsaw police.Archaeologists have long known that such well-preserved treasures were located in the riverbed in the Warsaw area, but not exactly where.The archaeologists and frogmen, led by Hubert Kowalski, have previously retrieved some of the stolen stone ornaments from the Vistula riverbed in three years of searching for the sunken treasures. Butonly now, with the river much lower than normal, thanks to recent heat waves and droughts, their findings have become spectacular."This is a precious find. These elements were stolen from Warsaw's royal residences and palaces," said Marek Wrede, a historian at the Royal Castle.The valuable artistic objects marble floor tiles, parts of archways and columns  were robbed from Warsaw by the Swedes who overran the nation in mid-17th century and took heavy loads of spoils from across the country. Today's items probably came from the Royal Castle and from a royal country residence, the Kazimierz Palace.The artifacts probably were being carried by a barge that sank, one of the many such vessels that ferried loot down the river to the Baltic Sea and to Sweden.The find is precious for Poland, which has been repeatedly plundered by neighboring armies over the centuries, including Nazi Germany and the Soviet Red Army during World War II.Kowalski said he knew about the hidden artifacts from 17th century letters that mentioned barges that had sunk in the area.First word of where the treasures might be came in 1906 when sand barge operators discovered some items, but could retrieve only a few.Kowalski said his team is now busy cleaning the newly retrieved items, which are "very well preserved, given the 350 years in water."

Iran accuses Siemens of nuclear sabotage

Iran accused Germany's Siemens on Saturday of implanting tiny explosives inside equipment the Islamic Republic purchased for its disputed nuclear program, a charge the technology giant denied.Prominent lawmaker Alaeddin Boroujerdi said Iranian security experts discovered the explosives and removed them before detonation, adding that authorities believe the booby-trapped equipment was sold to derail uranium enrichment efforts."The equipment was supposed to explode after being put to work, in order to dismantle all our systems," he said. "But the wisdom of our experts thwarted the enemy conspiracy."Siemens denied the charge and said its nuclear division has had no business with Iran since the 1979 revolution that led to its current clerical state."Siemens rejects the allegations and stresses that we have no business ties to the Iranian nuclear program," spokesman for the Munich-based company Alexander Machowetz said.Boroujerdi, who heads the parliamentary security committee, alleged that the explosives were implanted at a Siemens factory and demanded the company take responsibility.Any sale of nuclear equipment to Iran is banned under U.N. sanctions, raising the possibility that if it indeed has some, it may have been acquired through third parties. Boroujerdi did not say when or how Iran obtained Siemens equipment. Despite a wide array of international sanctions, Germany remains one of Iran's most important trading partners.The U.S. and its allies suspect Iran's nuclear work is aimed at producing weapons. Iran says it only wants to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, and asserts it has been the target of a concerted campaign by Israel, the U.S. and their allies to undermine its nuclear efforts through covert operations.Some Iranian officials have also suggested in the past that specific European companies may have sold faulty equipment to Iran with the knowledge of American intelligence agencies and their own governments, since the sales would have harmed, rather than helped, the country's nuclear program.According to Iran, the alleged campaign has included the abduction of scientists, the sale of faulty equipment and the planting of a destructive computer worm known as Stuxnet, which briefly brought Iran's uranium enrichment activity to a halt in 2010.Iran's nuclear chief, Fereidoun Abbasi, said Monday that separate attacks on Iran's centrifuges through tiny explosives meant to disable key parts of the machines were discovered before the blasts could go off on timers.Abbasi also told the U.N. nuclear agency in Vienna that "terrorists and saboteurs" might have infiltrated the International Atomic Energy Agency, after the watchdog's inspectors arrived at the Fordo underground enrichment facility shortly after power lines were blown up through sabotage on Aug. 17.Iran has repeatedly accused the IAEA of sending spies in the guise of inspectors to collect information about its nuclear activities, pointing to alleged leaks of information by inspectors to U.S. and other officials.Five nuclear scientists and researchers have been killed in Iran since 2010. Tehran blames the deaths on Israel's Mossad spy agency as well as the CIA and Britain's MI-6. Washington and London have denied any roles. Israel has not commented.Boroujerdi said the alleged leaks of nuclear information to its adversaries by the IAEA may finally push Tehran to end all cooperation with the agency."Iran has the right to cut its cooperation with the IAEA should such violations continue," he said.