Haisong Jiang was released in the early hours of Saturday
A man held for breaching security at Newark airport near New York, sparking the closure of a busy terminal, was kissing his girlfriend goodbye.
Haisong Jiang, 28, a Chinese-born student, was arrested late on Friday night and will be charged with defiant trespass, the Port Authority said.
He is due in court next week and could face a fine of up to $500 (£312).
Flights were grounded and passengers evacuated from the secure side of the terminal after the incident.
A surveillance video shows a man in a light-coloured jacket slipping underneath a security cordon at the airport, shortly after being told by an official to move away.
'Not some prank'
After the security official steps away, a man believed to be Mr Jiang is seen ducking underneath the security cordon and kissing a woman in a long white coat, before walking away with her, arm-in-arm toward the boarding area.
According to Mr Jiang's flatmate, his girlfriend is a recent graduate from Rutgers university who lives in Los Angeles. She was visiting New York for the holidays, AP reported.
The incident took place just hours after tougher screening rules for air passengers were unveiled following the alleged Christmas Day bomb plot against a US plane.
Authorities had to scour the city to track down Mr Jiang, who is studying for a doctoral degree in molecular biosciences at Rutgers university, after he left the airport.
New Jersey Senator Frank Lautenberg expressed anger that he could only face a fine.
"It wasn't some prank that didn't do any harm - it did a lot of harm because it sent out an alert that people can get away with something like this," he said.
He said he had committed a "terrible injustice" to the thousands who had faced disrupted travel after flights were cancelled.
Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan arrives for President Obama's security meeting at the White House, January 5, 2010
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CIA Director Leon Panetta arrives for President Obama's security meeting at the White House, January 5, 2010\
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates arrives for President Obama's security meeting at the White House, January 5, 2010
President Obama announces a series of reforms aimed at helping to thwart future attacks like the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day following a security meeting at the White House,
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President Obama arrives to announce outlines a series of reforms aimed at helping to thwart future attacks like the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day following a security meeting at the White House, January 5, 2010
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U.S. President Barack Obama is "not patient" and is demanding immediate changes in airline security, the top U.S. military officer said on Wednesday, as a grand jury indicted a Nigerian man for trying to blow up a Detroit-bound plane on Christmas Day.
Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said there was concern that potential extremists could be inspired by the bombing attempt blamed on 23-year-old Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has claimed responsibility for the attempt, one of the most serious U.S. security breaches and intelligence breakdowns since the September 11 attacks.
"Certainly there is the concern that this would bring more, generate more support from young males who might be on the fence about what to do with their lives," Mullen said.
A grand jury in Michigan indicted Abdulmutallab on six counts, including attempted murder of the other 289 passengers and crew on board the plane, and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. He faces life in prison, if convicted.
The bomb, which Abdulmutallab has told investigators was given to him by al Qaeda in Yemen, contained the highly explosive ingredients Pentaerythritol Tetranitrate, or PETN, and Triacetone Triperoxide, or TATP, the indictment said.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder held out the possibility of others being charged, saying, "Anyone we find responsible for this alleged attack will be brought to justice using every tool -- military or judicial -- available to our government."
Jitters have gripped the U.S. travel industry in the aftermath of the bombing attempt. In the latest security scare, an unruly passenger on a Hawaii-bound airliner on Wednesday prompted the pilot to return the plane to Portland, Oregon, escorted by two military fighter jets.
Obama called the Detroit incident a potentially disastrous "screw-up" by the intelligence community during a two-hour meeting with his national security team on Tuesday.
"The president -- he's not patient about this at all. These changes have to be made immediately," Mullen told university students at a seminar in Washington.
Obama will address the issue again in a public statement on Thursday, when the White House will release a review that will make recommendations on plugging holes in security, including changes in passenger screening and terrorism watch lists.
"The review will simply identify and make recommendations as to what was lacking and what needs to be strengthened," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said, adding it would be "comprehensive."
INTELLIGENCE SHARING
U.S. spy agencies and the State Department had information about Abdulmutallab but they never pieced it together to put him on a no-fly list. Instead, passengers and crew subdued the Nigerian bomb suspect as he tried to detonate the device.
Mullen said part of the problem was intelligence sharing and filtering through the extraordinary amount of data collected by U.S. spy agencies.
"It does have to do with sharing information and it does have to do with huge bureaucracies. And we collect an extraordinary amount of data," Mullen said.
Obama has been lambasted by Republicans who accuse his Democratic administration of being weak on terrorism and unable to fix intelligence gaps that have lingered since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States involving hijacked planes.
Senior Republican lawmakers on Wednesday called on Obama to take more concrete steps to improve security and challenged the decision to try Abdulmutallab in federal court.
"All jihadist attackers should be charged as enemy combatants, taken into military custody, interrogated for vital intelligence, and tried in military courts under the laws of armed conflict," they said in a letter to Obama.
Since the Christmas bombing attempt, there has been finger- pointing within the U.S. intelligence community, including at the National Counterterrorism Center, created in 2004 to serve as the main repository for counterterrorism intelligence.
Asked whether people might lose their jobs over the incident, Gibbs said, "I don't know what the final outcome in terms of hiring and firing will be."
"This is a failure that touches across the full waterfront of our intelligence agencies," he said.
Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell did not rule out the possibility the review could affect the Defense Department, but added he did not see any readily apparent failings "within this department as to how we should have responded."
More counterterrorism news tomorrow: Release of a declassified version of the report on how intelligence agencies "screwed up" -- President Obama's words -- before the attempted bombing of Flight 253 over Detroit on Christmas Day.
"The review will simply identify and make recommendations as to what was lacking and what needs to be strengthened," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.
President Obama is expected to issue a statement on the review, Gibbs said. Counterterrorism adviser John Brennan and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano will probably discuss it before the television cameras.
Obama has received preliminary results of the report and discussed it with agency heads at Tuesday's big national security meeting. Gibbs said that the report deals with holes in airport security as well as problems within the various intelligence agencies and that Obama plans to follow up on proposed improvements in the weeks and months ahead.
Gibbs said he doesn't expect to see any personnel changes tomorrow.
"It was not the falling down of one agency, one department or one person," Gibbs said. "This, as the president has described, was a systemic failure. Each of those agencies and departments yesterday took responsibility, and as I've said, outlined plans for filling the gaps that they've found."
Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao (left) shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il at Pyongyang Airport.Kim Jong Il (right) told Wen Jiabao that he was willing to take part in multilateral talks, state media reported
South Koreans watch a TV news program about Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, second from left, meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, second from right, at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2009. North Korea is in the final stage of restoring its nuclear facilities, a news report said Tuesday, as Kim expressed a conditional willingness to end Pyongyang's boycott of international nuclear talks.
Delegations from China (right) and North Korea (left) meet in Pyongyang
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (R) shakes hands with Kim Jong Il, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), during a meeting in Pyongyang, capital of the DPRK, Oct. 5, 2009. North Korea is in the final stage of restoring its nuclear facilities, a news report said Tuesday, as leader Kim Jong Il expressed a conditional willingness to end Pyongyang's boycott of international nuclear talks.
South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities reached the conclusion after scrutinizing about 10 atomic facilities in North Korea since April when the communist regime vowed to restart its nuclear program in anger over a U.N. rebuke of its long-range rocket launch.
Pyongyang claimed the launch was a peaceful attempt to put a satellite into orbit, but the liftoff was widely condemned as a test of the North's long-range missile technology.
The report came as North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao that his country was prepared to return to six-party nuclear disarmament talks depending on progress in its two-way negotiations with the United States.
Kim's comments, carried by official North Korean and Chinese media, were the clearest sign yet that Pyongyang was readying to resume the six-nation talks it withdrew from after conducting missile tests in April and a second nuclear test in May.
The stalled talks involve China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the U.S.
In their meeting late Monday, Kim said that North Korea "is willing to attend multilateral talks, including the six-party talks, depending on the progress in its talks with the United States," China's Xinhua News Agency said in a report issued early Tuesday.
North Korea has long sought one-on-one negotiations with the U.S., claiming that it was compelled to develop nuclear weapons to cope with what it calls the "U.S. hostile policy" and "nuclear threats" against the regime.
Yonhap also cited the government source as saying that North Korea has conducted missile engine tests a few times recently on the country's west coast at a new missile launch site that is in the final stage of construction.
News reports said earlier this year that the North had moved a long-range missile to the new site for a possible test launch, but Yonhap said Tuesday that the missile has been moved elsewhere. The report did not elaborate.
Meanwhile, South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported that the youngest son of Kim Jong Il could be officially named an heir to the communist dynasty as early as next year. The paper cited a South Korean government report to a ruling party lawmaker.
Talk of who will take over North Korea after Kim Jong Il intensified after Kim reportedly suffered a stroke last year. The third son, Kim Jong Un, is widely believed to be the favorite.
China Premier visit to NKorea Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is rich in content, weighty in outcome and significant in meaning, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said on Tuesday.
Yang stressed that the three-day visit had achieved two major results -- further deepening the traditional China-DPRK friendship and boosting their good-neighborly relations of cooperation as well as promoting the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a positive way.
As an important country in Northeast Asia and a host of the six-party talks, China has once again played its due role and shouldered its due responsibility, he said.
The foreign minister said that China and the DPRK are two friendly neighbors, and this year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations and is the China-DPRK Friendship Year.
Wen was greeted at the airport by DPRK's top leader Kim Jong Il,top legislator Kim Yong Nam, and his DPRK counterpart Kim Yong Il.Hundreds of thousands of residents in Pyongyang gave the Chinese premier a warm welcome along the city's streets.
During their talks, both the Chinese and the DPRK sides agreed that the China-DPRK friendship forged by old generation revolutionaries is in line with the common wishes and fundamental interests of both the Chinese and DPRK people, said the foreign minister. Premier Wen had sincere and in-depth talks with the DPRK leaders on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and made much headway on the promotion of a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, Yang said.
The commitment to the objective of making the peninsula nuclear free, and to maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia as a whole, serves the interests of all the parties concerned, including the DPRK, Wen was quoted as saying.
To realize denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and consultation is a common understanding of the international community and the only way to solve the peninsula's nuclear issue, Wen said.
China is willing to make concerted efforts with the DPRK and other parties concerned to contribute to realizing the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and maintaining peace, stability and development in the Northeast Asian region, Premier Wen said.
Through bilateral meetings between the DPRK and the United States, the hostile relations between the two countries must turn into peaceful ones. The DPRK is willing to attend multilateral talks, including the six-party talks, based on the progress in the DPRK-U.S. talks, the DPRK side said.
US targets banks in effort to restart NKorea talks.
Obama administration also learn from previous Bush Administrator how to force NKorea into talk. The Obama administration's push to settle a tense nuclear standoff with North Korea is being spearheaded not by soldiers on a battlefield or big-name diplomats but by government officials knocking on the doors of banks throughout Asia.
American officials are traveling around Asia, targeting private banks that might have North Korean ties. They hope to block money that could be used for missiles and nuclear bombs and, ultimately, to drive North Korea back to stalled disarmament talks.
The strategy is simple, according to interviews with past and current U.S. officials responsible for implementing it. And, they say, it works, which has not been the case with tortuous nuclear negotiations with the North.
The officials tell bankers that North Korea uses its accounts to hide counterfeiting of U.S. currency, to launder money, to smuggle cigarettes and drugs. The banks could face potentially dire consequences if they are seen as helping illicit activities.
U.S. officials say bankers find their visits difficult to ignore.
"It's having an effect. We think that the word is out," said Philip Goldberg, President Barack Obama's point man on implementing new United Nations sanctions on North Korea. The effort encourages banks to "give heightened scrutiny to any transaction that may be coming through with a North Korean label on it."
Coincidence or not, as the United States steps up financial pressure, the North has begun making conciliatory moves, showing a new willingness to resume nuclear talks.
The Obama administration can point to a U.N. resolution that decrees financial sanctions against designated entities that may be involved in missile or nuclear weapons financing or proliferation. Victor Cha, Bush's former senior Asia adviser, said the resolution makes "a huge difference" in getting banks' attention.
The White House also has at its disposal a powerful cautionary tale about the dangers of dealing with the North: the story of Banco Delta Asia, a bank in the Chinese territory of Macau accused of helping North Korea launder money and other illicit activities.
The threat of the U.S. blacklisting BDA in 2005 effectively led to the North being severed from the international financial system, as institutions worried about jeopardizing their U.S. connections voluntarily stopped dealing with the bank and the North.
Even if they have little risk of being blacklisted, financial institutions try to avoid activities that would tarnish their reputations and scare away current or future customers.
PM Palestine Abbas said Israeil Settlement in Gaza must stop.
Netanyahu used Nazi-era documents to condemn what he said were the "tyrants of Tehran". Prove holocaust exists where 6million Jews were murdered. Iran PM Ahmednijah denied it occur.
PM Israeil , Obama and PM Palestine Abbas refuse to continue peace talk . Abbas wants israel contrustion in Gaza to stop.Isreail refuse.
Prime Minister of Turkey, speaks at the 64th session of the General Assembly at United Nations headquarters, Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009. Want action again Isreal for act against humanitarian during the Gaza war.
PM Isreal condemn shameful U.N allowing PM Iran to give speech in UN. Ahmednijah is a holocaust denier. However , PM israel also denied committing act against humanity found guilty because using phosphorus bom in Gaza.
Lately , Obama administrator has setback , when both side refuse to continue peace talk. Isreal refuse to stop construction in Gaza , while Palestine continue wants to assert control in Gaza.Obama, softening the call for a full freeze, said Israel should "restrain" settlement activity and announced further, lower-level talks to be held next week. But analysts were pessimistic about the chances of serious negotiations restarting on a two-state deal.
"A clear majority of Palestinians -- 55 percent -- favor a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza ... just 11 percent favored either of the other alternatives under discussion, a bi-national state of Palestinians and Israelis or a confederation with neighboring Jordan and Egypt."
The survey was conducted in June and July. This week, U.S. President Barack Obama intervened personally in a bid to relaunch stalled peace talks, bringing Abbas together with Israeli Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for talks in New York.
Netanyahu again resisted international calls to freeze Israeli settlement in the West Bank, which Abbas says it must do in order for talks to resume. Israel says the Palestinians are not in a position to make peace as long as Hamas rules Gaza.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday his country would push the Security Council to discuss a report by U.N. investigators accusing Israel and Palestinian militants of war crimes in the Gaza war.
"We will definitely take the position to discuss this issue on the Security Council," Erdogan told reporters.
A U.N. fact-finding mission led by South African jurist Richard Goldstone issued a report last week that said both the Israeli army and Palestinian militants had committed war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity, during the December-January war in the Gaza Strip.
Both Israel and Hamas denied committing any war crimes. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described the report of the Goldstone commission, which Israel refused to cooperate with, as a travesty. ---
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at Iran's first nuclear plant last year
Satellite photo of what is believed to be a uranium-enrichment facility near Qom
President Barack Obama, accompanied by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, left, and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, makes a statement on Iran's nuclear facility, Friday, Sept. 25, 2009, during the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh. The UK foreign Secretary, David Miliband, says diplomacy is way forward but refused to rule out military action
Israel Respond.
Israel's foreign minister said on Saturday the newly disclosed nuclear facility in Iran was proof the Islamic Republic was seeking nuclear weapons, and called on the world for an "unequivocal" response.
"I spoke this weekend with experts from the East and West. No one has any doubt, according to the technical data that was published, it's a military core," right-winger Avigdor Lieberman told Israel Radio.
"The disagreement (on whether Iran is developing military nuclear capability) has been done away with," he said.
Israeli leaders have repeatedly expressed alarm over Iran's nuclear ambitions and refused to rule out pre-emptive military action to stop Iran developing an atomic weapon.
Tehran says its nuclear plans are peaceful and has resisted U.S.-led diplomatic pressure to curb its uranium enrichment, which can be used to generate electricity or make bombs.
USA responds.
President Barack Obama said on Saturday the discovery of a secret nuclear plant in Iran showed a "disturbing pattern" of evasion by Tehran which added urgency to its October 1 talks with world powers.President Obama said the international community has put Iran on notice with its response to the revelation that the Islamic regime has been secretly building a nuclear facility.
"You had an unprecedented show of unity on the part of the world community saying that Iran's actions raised grave doubts in terms of their presentation that their nuclear program was for peaceful purposes," Obama told reporters in Pittsburgh at a G-20 summit.
"So I think that Iran is on notice that when we meet with them on Oct. 1, they're going to have to come clean," Obama said, adding that Iran can choose to give up what the U.S. says is the desire for nuclear weapons and abide by international standards, or it can continue down a path toward confrontation.
The president would not rule out military options. But he added his preferred course of action is to resolve the standoff diplomatically.
"Iran has the right for peaceful power, but the size of the facility is inconsistent with a peaceful program," Obama said. "Iran is breaking rules that all nations must follow, endangering the world non-nuclear proliferation regime ... and the security of the world."
Iran acknowledged the existence of the uranium enrichment facility near Qom for the first time on Monday in a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency. U.S. officials said the disclosure was aimed at pre-empting an announcement by Western governments, which were aware of the site.
"This is a serious challenge to the global nonproliferation regime and continues a disturbing pattern of Iranian evasion," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address.
"That is why international negotiations with Iran scheduled for October 1 now take on added urgency," Obama said of the talks between Iran, the United States and five other powers due to occur next week in Geneva.
In meetings this week on the sidelines of the United Nations and the Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh, Britain, France and Germany have joined the United States in raising the specter of new sanctions against Iran if it does not take steps to address concerns about its nuclear program. Russia also signaled a greater willingness to go along with sanctions.
The West accuses Iran of seeking to acquire a nuclear weapon, but Tehran insists its nuclear program is aimed at generating electricity.
Obama, who sought to engage Iran after taking office in January, said he remains committed to dialogue but has said if Iran does not respond, sanctions must be considered.
"My offer of a serious, meaningful dialogue to resolve this issue remains open," Obama said. "But Iran must now cooperate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency and take action to demonstrate its peaceful intentions."
Iran Respond.
Before the public condemnation, Ahmadinejad warned Obama to back off.
"If I were Obama's adviser, I would definitely advise him to refrain making this statement because it is definitely a mistake," Ahmadinejad told TIME magazine in an interview about an hour before Obama spoke.
Ahmadinejad told the magazine that Iran was not keeping anything from the International Atomic Energy Agency.
"We have no secrecy, we work within the framework of the IAEA," he said.
Iran said the plant is not operational , but soon will be operational and will allow IAEA inspects to visit the site. Nothing is new , the nuclear plant is to generate electricity.
"This new plant, God willing, will soon become operational," said Mohammad Mohammadi-Golpayegani, who heads the office of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, according to the semi-official Fars News Agency.
The facility, buried in a mountain outside the city of Qom, is still under construction. It is designed to enrich uranium and could be used to produce the essential material for a nuclear weapon.
On Friday the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said that Tehran wrote to the agency on September 21, disclosing that it is building a new uranium enrichment facility.
Ahmadinejad said the new facility won't be operational for 18 months, so Iran did not violate any requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency by not revealing its construction before this week.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, however, has rejected Iran's contention it must notify the agency of new facilities only six months before operations. The agency says Iran is obliged to make such a notification when it begins design of such facilities.
The Iranians said in March 2007 they were "suspending" the modification to their IAEA safeguards agreement requiring that early notification. But the IAEA countered that a government cannot unilaterally abandon such an agreement.
The revelation has heightened fears that Iran is determined to develop the capacity to build an atomic weapon, although Tehran insists that it wants a nuclear programme to generate energy for a rapidly growing population.
International Responds.
Obama, joined by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy at the opening of the G-20 economic summit in Pittsburgh, warned Iran that it will be "held accountable" to an impatient world community if it does not fully disclose its nuclear ambitions.
"Iran has the right for peaceful power, but the size of the facility is inconsistent with a peaceful program," Obama said. "Iran is breaking rules that all nations must follow, endangering the world non-nuclear proliferation regime ... and the security of the world."
Obama's demand was echoed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who called on Iran to "demonstrate readiness for full-scale cooperation" with inspectors.
Sarkozy said Iran has until December to comply or face sanctions. "This is for peace and stability," the French leader said. Brown accused Iran of "serial deception."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also called for an immediate probe of the site by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
The secret facility.
Iran revealed the existence of its covert uranium enrichment facility to the IAEA this week after it discovered the project's secrecy had been breached by Western intelligence agencies.
An official told FOX News that Iran revealed the existence of the second plant in a letter sent Monday to IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei.
Iran is under three sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions for refusing to freeze enrichment at what had been its single known enrichment plant, which is being monitored by the IAEA.
A senior administration official told FOX News that the U.S. has been tracking the secret project for years.
U.S. intelligence believes that the secret Iranian nuclear facility is in an underground tunnel complex on a military base controlled by the elite Revolutionary Guards.
The document says the facility is "too small to be viable for the production of fuel for a nuclear power reactor, but may be well suited for a military purpose."
The location at the military base would also undermine Iran's claim that the program is for civilian purposes.
Iran's letter to the IAEA contained no details about the location of the second facility, when -- or if -- it had started operations, or the type and number of centrifuges it was running.
"They [Iran] have cheated three times, and they have now been caught three times," an unnamed official with access to the intelligence told The New York Times.
But one of the officials, who had access to a review of Western intelligence on the issue, said it was about 100 miles southwest of Tehran and was the site of 3,000 centrifuges that could be operational by next year.
The last IAEA report on Iran in August said Iran had set up more than 8,000 centrifuges to churn out enriched uranium at the cavernous underground Natanz facility, although the report said that only about 4,600 of those were fully active.
The Islamic Republic insists that it has the right to generate fuel for what it says will be a nationwide chain of nuclear reactors. But because uranium enrichment can make both fuel and weapons-grade uranium, the international community fears Tehran will use the technology to generate the fissile material used on the tip of nuclear warheads.
The revelation of a secret plant further hinders the chances of progress in scheduled Oct. 1 talks between Iran and six world powers.
At that meeting -- the first in more than a year -- the five permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany plan to press Iran to scale back on its enrichment activities. Tehran has declared that it will not bargain on enrichment.
While Iran's mainstay P-1 centrifuge is a decades-old model based on Chinese technology, it has begun experimenting with state-of-the art prototypes that enrich uranium more quickly and efficiently.
The existence of a secret Iranian enrichment program built on black-market technology was revealed seven years ago. Since then, the country has continued to expand the program with only a few interruptions as it works toward its aspirations of a 50,000-centrifuge enrichment facility at the southern city of Natanz.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon with Barack Obama
The G20 economic summit will take place in Pittsburgh later this week
Barack Obama was unable to get Israeli and Palestinian leaders to agree to open talks, after a three-way summit. Israel refuse to stop constuction in Gaza , and Palestine continue to exerts control in Gaza.
Protesters displays placards during a demonstration against Iran's government
Libyan leader Colonel Moamer Kadhafi. Said Security Council should be renamed Terror Council because of sanctions. Proposed formation of Isratin(Israel+Palestine) to solve Middle East conflicts problems.
US President Barack Obama addresses the UN General Assembly
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon
Obama gives his first UN speech. Duration: 00:44
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the general debate of the 64th session of the United Nations General Assembly, in New York, 24 Sep 2009
President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama arrive at Pittsburgh International Airport in Coraopolis, Pa., Thursday, Sept. 24, 2009. He will be attending the G20 Summit being held in Pittsburgh.
President Barack Obama chairs a meeting of the United Nations Security Council at the United Nations headquarters, in New York, 24 Sep 2009
United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, left, and General Assembly President Ali Abdussalam Treki, of Libya, shake hands after Mr. Ban's opening address to the General Assembly Wednesday
Chinese President Hu Jintao (R Front) arrives in Pittsburgh of the United States Sept. 24, 2009 to attend the Group of 20 summit.
"Although we averted a nuclear nightmare during the Cold War, we now face proliferation of a scope and complexity that demands new strategies and new approaches." -- U.S. President Barack Obama
"Just one nuclear weapon exploded in a city -- be it New York or Moscow, Tokyo or Beijing, London or Paris -- could kill hundreds of thousands of people. And it would badly destabilize our security, our economies, and our very way of life." -- Obama
"I called for this one so that we may address at the highest level fundamental threat to all peoples and all nations, the spread and use of nuclear weapons." -- Obama.
World leaders agreed Thursday on the sweeping goal of a planet free from atomic weapons but faced continued divisions over details of their thorniest challenge, Iran's nuclear program.
The United Nations Security Council approved a resolution proposed by President Barack Obama setting a series of goals to eliminate nuclear weapons, ban production of the fissile material used to make them, outlaw atomic tests and safeguard stockpiles in the meantime.
"We know there are plenty of cynics and that there will be setbacks to prove their point," Obama told the council. "But there will also be days like today that push us forward, days that tell a different story. It is the story of a world that understands that no difference or division is worth destroying all that we have built and all that we love."
The resolution also advocates action against nations that put civilian nuclear technology to military use in violation of the international Non-Proliferation Treaty. While not naming specific countries, the resolution expressed concern over steps by nations such as Iran and North Korea to develop nuclear programs and weapons.
During the course of the Security Council meeting, leaders singled out both countries, with several urging strenuous action to restrain each. North Korea already has tested weapons, while Iran is accused by U.S. officials and their allies of seeking to develop them.
Two immediate nuclear crisis.
"Talk of a nuclear-free future is nice, but we are facing two immediate nuclear crises," said French President Nicolas Sarkozy, naming Iran and North Korea. "Iran is violating the Security Council's resolutions right before our eyes." He was joined by Obama and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who urged "far tougher" sanctions against Iran.
The five permanent members of the Security Council -- the U.S., Britain, France, Russia and China -- along with Germany will meet with Iran next week in Geneva in an effort to start talks over the nuclear program, which Tehran insists is intended for peaceful, civilian purposes.
The Obama administration claimed progress in its push to bring Iran to the negotiating table this week. After a meeting with Obama, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signaled for the first time that Moscow might agree to stiffer economic sanctions against Iran. As one of the country's major trading partners, Russia could exert considerable influence over Iran.
However, China opposes sanctions, urging a peaceful solution to the standoff."We believe that sanctions and exerting pressure are not the way to solve problems and are not conducive for the current diplomatic efforts on the Iran nuclear issue," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said at a news briefing in Beijing, Reuters reported.
But other world powers are pushing for a short deadline to talks. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said he favors giving Iran until the end of the year to avoid new sanctions. Italy is the current chair of the wealthy Group of Eight nations.
Sarkozy, whose country is also a member of the G-8, agrees with a December deadline.
For Obama, the issue overshadows another top foreign policy priority, Mideast peace. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned in a speech before the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday that unless Iran is restrained, peace in the region is impossible.
"We want peace," Netanyahu said. "I believe such a peace can be achieved. But only if we roll back the forces of terror, led by Iran, that seek to destroy peace, eliminate Israel and overthrow the world order."
Chavez says he smells hope, not sulfur
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday that he smells hope, not sulfur, a small compliment for Barack Obama given that he branded then President George W. Bush "the devil" when he last addressed the world body in 2006.
"It doesn't smell of sulfur. It's gone. It smells of something else. It smells of hope and you have hope in your heart," Chavez said during a rambling, 57-minute address in which he mentioned close friend and former Cuban President Fidel Castro more than Obama or Bush.
Chavez denounced capitalism as being a chief cause of global climate change and accused Obama of making lofty promises but failing to live up to them, asking, "Doesn't it seem like there are two Obamas?"
