Here's a link to the latest updates from the P 5+1 talks in Moscow. Here are a couple of highlights.
4:30 P.M. A Western diplomat involved in the talks said a short time ago that "the talks are tough and difficult at this stage," adding that the major stumbling block was getting the Iranian side to focus on the international proposal to limit its uranium enrichment. Iran is still refusing to discuss the international community's proposal that Iran commit to cease enriching uranium to a level of 20 percent.
The diplomat said that as of now, no additional round of talks is scheduled to take place following the current round, which ends on Tuesday. "The success of the talks is in doubt, and we could decide after this round that there is no point in continuing," he said.
He speculated that the Iranians' obstinacy could be a result of its expectation that the West would seek a compromise, or due to differences of opinion that are believed to exist within the Iranian leadership.
3:40 P.M. - Iranian English-language television channel Press TV, quoting a source in the Iranian delegation, reports that Iran will not agree to discuss enrichment of uranium to 20 percent unless the six world powers agree to recognize its right to enrich uranium and lift economic sanctions.
The source told Press TV that Tehran is not willing to wait for a response forever, adding that the West's insistence on "excessive demands" would "prevent the Iranian nation from making scientific progress."
...
1:50 P.M. - The Russian hosts are pressuring Iran to show flexibility. Iran's chief negotiator Jalili will meet with Putin's national security adviser on Monday evening.
It doesn't sound like there's been a whole lot of progress, does it?
Breaking: Passenger on Moscow - Tehran flight had uranium in suitcase
Israel Radio has just reported (3:00 Friday) that a passenger on a Moscow - Tehran flight was discovered to have uranium in his suitcase during a routine security check in Moscow. The security agents' suspicions were aroused by radioactivity in the security area.
More details if I have them before the Sabbath starts.
The Russian customs service said Friday it had seized radioactive material found in the luggage of a passenger bound for Tehran at Moscow's Sheremetyevo international airport.
The service said in a statement that tests showed the material was a radioactive isotope which could be obtained only "as a result of a nuclear reactor's operations."
The statement said the material had triggered an alarm in the airport's radiation control system. The luggage search led to a discovery of 18 pieces of radioactive metal packed in individual steel casings.
Surprise: Moscow suicide bomber was not a Methodist
I don't want to tell you what religion the Moscow suicide bomber apparently was, because I don't want you to think I'm 'Islamo...," but Debbie Schlussel has all the details here.
In televised remarks, the Russian president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, said: “At Domodedovo an explosion has occurred, and according to preliminary information it was a terrorist attack. There are dead and there are wounded.”
He admonished officials for their failure to prevent the attack, and ordered the police to boost security at all airports and on public transportation. Mr. Medvedev also said he was delaying his departure for the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, which begins this week.
International arrivals were being diverted to nearby airports, according to local news media reports.
The airport, southeast of the capital, is Russia’s largest airline hub, with more than 20 million passengers passing through last year.
If investigators find that the explosion was the result of terrorism, it would be the first such attack to hit Moscow since March, when two suicide bombers detonated explosives on the city’s subway during rush hour. More than 40 people were killed in that attack, which was traced to two women from Dagestan who had ridden buses into the capital.
The rebel leader Doku Umarov took responsibility for the March attack. In 2009, Mr. Umarov revived a suicide battalion linked to the most notorious attacks of the last decade. In a video apparently made hours after the blast, Mr. Umarov said, “The war will come to your streets, and you will feel it in your own lives and on your own skin.”
In August 2004, two Chechen suicide bombers boarded separate planes at Domodedovo airport before killing themselves and 88 others in midair. The attack exposed holes in security at the airport: the two bombers, both women, had been detained shortly before boarding, but were released by a police supervisor. The authorities have since worked to improve procedures at Domodedovo.
Monday’s explosion in Moscow pointed to the continuing fascination with air travel for militants, as well as the difficulty of carrying out an attack aboard a jet, said Stephen A. Baker, a former official with the Department of Homeland Security. “They’d like to be bombing planes and they can’t, so they’re bombing airports,” he said, adding that the attack “validates the focus that the U.S. has had on security at airports.”
Here's an English language Russian television report from about an hour after the blast. Let's go to the videotape.
I'm sure that if there were a 'Palestinian state' this would not have happened.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
Here's a link to the latest updates from the P 5+1 talks in Moscow. Here are a couple of highlights. 
