Top news: In the latest sign of escalating tensions between Iran and the West over the Iranian nuclear program, Iran's semi-official Fars News Agency is reporting that a "terrorist bomb blast" in northern Tehran killed Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, whom the news outlet identifies as an academic who also worked at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility. Fars says the assault resembled a 2010 bombing that targeted the current head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization.
The New York Times notes that this is the fourth such killing reported by Iran in two years. And, as in the previous cases, Iranian officials are blaming Israel for the assassination. The accusations come as Iran, facing international sanctions, announces the start of production at a second uranium enrichment site and the sentencing of a former U.S. Marine to death for allegedly spying for the CIA.
In a rather bizarre aside to all this diplomatic tension, the U.S. Navy rescued a group of Iranians at sea on Tuesday for the second time in less than a week.
U.S. election: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney won the New Hampshire primary convincingly after enduring a spate of attacks, with Ron Paul finishing second and Jon Huntsman coming in third. The contest now moves to South Carolina.
Middle East
- An Algerian Arab League monitor in Syria has quit the mission, which he described as a "farce," and called the situation in the country a "humanitarian disaster," as the United Nations reports that the Syrian government has stepped up its killings since the observers arrived.
- Israel's military chief said the army is preparing to absorb refugees in a buffer zone between Syria and the Golan Heights following the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's regime, which he said was inevitable.
- Egypt's Foreign Ministry is discouraging Israeli pilgrims from making an annual visit to the tomb of Rabbi Yaakov Abu Hatzira in the Nile Delta.
- The United States resumed drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas after a two-month pause designed to ease tensions between the two countries, which worsened after a U.S. strike killed two dozen Pakistani troops.
- U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is meeting with Chinese officials in Beijing to garner support for sanctions on Iran's oil industry.
- North Korea accused the United States of "politicizing" food aid but did not close the door on a deal.
- Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega promised "no dramatic changes" during his third term as president at a ceremony attended by Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is on a four-nation tour of Latin America.
- The U.S. Treasury Department has labeled Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman "the world's most powerful drug trafficker."
- Concerns about the safety of juice in Brazil and cold weather in Florida have pushed orange juice prices to a record high.
- The paralyzing standoff between Nigeria's government and unions over the removal of a fuel subsidy has entered its third day, amidst continuing attacks that the government blames on the Islamist militant group Boko Haram.
- A French investigation has concluded that aides to Rwandan President Paul Kagame were not responsible for a 1994 missile strike that shot down former President Juvenal Habyarimana's plane and sparked the country's genocide.
- Ugandan businesses in Kampala are shutting down and boycotting banks to protest the central bank's high interest rates.
Europe
- The German economy appears to have shrunk in the last quarter of 2011 but grown by 3 percent during 2011 as a whole.
- The Netherlands announced that it will ban the use of the drug khat, which is popular with the Somali community in the country.
- Without explicitly singling out the United States, the director of Russia's troubled space agency suggested that an anti-satellite weapon may have caused a Mars probe to fail.
IIPA via Getty Images
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