Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said “all needs of the Iranian nation” would be met by its nuclear scientists

Iran’s President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, says “great” nuclear achievements will be announced in the next few days.

He did not give any details, but insisted that Iran would never halt its programme to enrich uranium, which can be used to make a nuclear warhead.

Mr Ahmadinejad was speaking at a rally in Tehran as Iranians marked the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic revolution.

He also promised that Iran would never yield to the West if it continued to use “the language of force and insult”.

Last week, President Barack Obama said the United States would work in “lockstep” with Israel to prevent Iran

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No date for the release of the new banknotes has yet been announced

South Africa is to issue a complete set of banknotes bearing the image of its first black president, Nelson Mandela.

Mr Mandela, now 93, was released from prison on 11 February 1990 after 27 years in prison.

President Jacob Zuma said the banknotes were a “humble gesture” to express South Africa’s “deep gratitude”.

Mr Mandela won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993 for his campaign against white minority rule (apartheid). He was elected president the following year.

Known affectionately by his clan name “Madiba”, he has now retired from public life.

Speaking at the central bank in Pretoria, President

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Rachel Harvey joins crowds as they wait to catch a glimpse of Aung San Suu Kyi

The demonstrators say the military should hand power to parliament, which was elected over three rounds in November and December, or to a civilian council, ahead of presidential elections set to take place before the end of June.

The military, headed by Mubarak’s long-time defence minister Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, has said it will deploy additional troops across the country in response to the calls for a day of disobedience.

Tareq al-Khouly, an organiser of the April 6 youth group, said the plan was for a one-day strike which could be extended.

‘Support the strikes’

In a joint statement on Friday, the protesting groups urged

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Iran’s president has said that the Islamic Republic will soon announce “very important” achievements in the nuclear field, during an address to crowds celebrating the anniversary of the country’s 1979 revolution.

Ahmadinejad addressed tens of thousands of supporters in Tehran’s Azadi [Freedom] Square on Saturday as Iranians across the country joined state-organised rallies to mark the occasion.

“In the coming days the world will witness Iran’s announcement of its very important and very major nuclear achievements,” Ahmadinejad told the crowd in a speech relayed live on state television. He gave no further details. 

The president spoke from a stage in front of which a full-scale model of a captured US spy drone was erected, which Iranian officials said they brought down by hacking its flight controls as

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Syria’s opposition has denied claims by the government that it was behind bomb attacks in the northern city of Aleppo that left dozens of people dead.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Arif al-Hummoud, a commander of the Free Syrian Army, a name used by various armed groups, said that opposition fighters had carried out an attack on Friday morning but were not responsible for the blasts.

“A group from the Free Syrian Army attacked a branch of the military security and a security unit in Aleppo with only RPGs and light weapons,” he said.

Syrian state television quoted the health ministry as saying that 28 people were killed and more than 200 others wounded, including soldiers and civilians.

“The number of casualties from the two car bombs in Aleppo has risen to 28 dead and 235 wounded,” the ministry said.

The broadcaster blamed the attack on “armed terrorist gangs”.

Abdul Rahman Abu Hothyfa, a spokesman

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