STORIES BACKGROUND • Thousands of Romanian Birds Killed to Halt Flu Spread • Feared Bird Flu Strain Confirmed in Romania • U.S. Health Secretary:Bird Flu Outbreak Likely • WHO: Human Risk from Bird Flu 'Very Low' • WHO: Bird Flu Human Risk Greatest in Asia

ATHENS, Greece — Authorities in Greece are confirming the country's first case of bird flu on a turkey farm on the Aegean Sea island of Oinouses (search), near the Turkish coast.

Greece's agriculture minister says the H5 virus (search) was been detected in one of nine turkeys tested.

Tests are being conducted for the possible presence of the deadly H5N1 virus (search). That's the virus that world health experts fear could mutate to a human form and cause a flu pandemic.

Over the weekend, tests on birds from Romania confirmed the arrival of bird flu in Europe — two days after it was verified on Europe's doorstep in the Asian part of Turkey.

The U.N. health agency emphasized that while the arrival of the bird virus in Europe complicates efforts to stamp it out, the aggressive response by Turkey and Romania was reassuring.

The bulk of the problem is in Asia, where the virus has become endemic in some areas, creating multiple opportunities for a human pandemic strain to emerge, WHO said.

"There's no question that we will expect further outbreaks of avian disease in different countries," said Dr. Michael Ryan, director of the Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Alert and Response (search) at the WHO (search). "Certainly North Africa and other countries in the African region are potentially in line for the introduction of the avian disease."

(Story continues below)

He added, "These introductions in Europe do represent a worrying development. We may see introductions into further countries over the coming weeks."

However, he said,"The problem is still very much focused in Asia."

In Hanoi, Vietnam, the United Nations' point man on bird flu (search) told The Associated Press the world is not ready to cope with a potential pandemic that would skip across borders and oceans.

Dr. David Nabarro, the U.N. coordinator for bird and human influenza, said a pandemic could cause "billions, even trillions" of dollars in damage.

"I think that this is a very strong set of economic arguments that do mean that it is right for the world to invest quite generously in the actions required to both delay the pandemic and, then if it comes, to make sure we're ready for it," he said.

"I think that the world is now aware of the scale of the problem and is going to put in the resources."

As the H5N1 virus is detected in poultry in new countries — the latest being Turkey and Romania — Nabarro said it was reasonable to believe that more poultry infections could occur along natural bird migratory routes in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Bird flu has killed more than 60 people in Southeast Asia since late 2003. Most cases have been traced to contact with birds, but experts fear a genetic mutation could spark a global pandemic.

 

PHOTOS VIDEO Click image to enlarge STORIES BACKGROUND LINKS • Britain Mulls Special Courts for Terror Suspects • U.K. Authorities Grill 7/21 Suspect in Rome • Radical Muslim Cleric Plans Return to Britain • Transit Attacks Revive Targeted Profiling Debate • UK Bomb Suspect Charged in N.Y. • British Cops Arrest Suspect Accused of Setting Up Jihad Camp in U.S. • Zambia Deports Bombings Suspect • First London Bomb Suspect Charged • U.K. Gov't Defends Crackdown on Extremists

LONDON — To crack down on Muslim extremists, one place authorities in Great Britain are looking harder at is the Internet because potential terrorists can learn how to make bombs, sneak through airport security or even murder a U.S. soldier without ever leaving home.

"This is a real problem because these sorts of extremists, Internet-types are a very, very direct incitement," said British Prime Minister Tony Blair (search).

English authorities have been extra vigilant since terrorists struck London's transit system last month. The July 7 London bombings killed 52 people and all four bombers on three underground trains and a double-decker bus. The botched July 21 attacks were an attempt to repeat the earlier bombings but nobody was killed.

Experts say that one of the most worrying aspects is that orders can be encrypted in videos or programs that Islamists can download and decipher. On Wednesday, Arabic television network Al-Arabiya aired a videotape purportedly from Al Qaeda that showed terrorists training for attacks on the U.S. and on coalition troops in Afghanistan.

Internet chatrooms can also provide secret hideaways in which to hatch plots — for example, the terror network in the Netherlands involved in the killing of filmmaker Theo van Gogh (search) last November and accused of plotting other terrorist attacks in Holland met regularly on Yahoo chatrooms.

But cracking down will not be easy. Anti-terrorism analysts say that conducting an online war against extremists would be difficult due to a lack of language experts.

"It begins with things like not having enough translators in the security services," said Peter Neuman, a terrorism expert at Kings College in London. "So there's a lot of material that doesn't get translated, so we don't even know what they are talking about."

A man U.S. officials have called an Al Qaeda (search) spokesman in London told FOX News that the Internet is not the lifeblood of the jihad movement. When it comes to the extreme hardcore, he said they don't communicate at all except for in the confines of their small cells scattered all over the world.

What the British government is doing, the spokesman said, is using the Internet as a scapegoat.

But experts say that the extremists' selective presentation of the facts amounts to incitement.

"Most of these videos show 15 minutes of Muslims all over the world suffering apparently at the hands of Western powers," said professor Michael Clark, a terrorism expert and director of the International Policy Institute in London.

"And then they show the other side of it, attacks on the West, bombs going off in Iraq and this is presented as a freeing of the world of Islam from the humiliation of this constant oppression from the West."

 

PHOTOS VIDEO PHOTO ESSAYS Click image to enlarge Photo Essays: • Bombs Found in the Trunk of a Car • Bombing Suspects Sought • London Attacked Again STORIES BACKGROUND LINKS • Blair Announces New Anti-Terror Measures • U.K. Anti-Terror Proposals • Sisters Charged in U.K. Bomb Probe • British Up Security in London • Al Qaeda Leader Vows More Attacks • British Police Charge First Bombing Suspect • Fast Facts: London Underground • Timeline: Latest London Explosions

LONDON — Prime Minister Tony Blair's (search) government on Saturday defended its plans to crack down on extremist Islamic clerics who preach hate, as critics warned the measures could further alienate British Muslims.

Charles Falconer (search), the lord chancellor, said the deadly July 7 attacks in London showed the government must act against people "who are encouraging young men who are becoming suicide bombers."

"I think there is a very widespread sense in the country subsequent to July 7 that things have changed. A new balance needs to be struck. It needs to be a lawful balance but it needs to be an effective balance," he told British Broadcasting Corp. (search) radio.

Blair's government has been trying to build support among political opponents and Muslim leaders for new anti-terrorism legislation since the suspected homicide bombings that killed 56 people, including four attackers.

On Friday, the government announced plans to deport foreign nationals who glorify acts of terror, bar radicals from entering Britain, close mosques linked with extremism, ban certain Islamic groups and, if necessary, amend human rights laws. The measures appear to have cracked the spirit of consensus.

Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy warned that the crackdown could alienate the law-abiding majority of Britain's 1.8 million Muslims and inflame tensions.

"A fundamental duty, a responsibility on all of us, whether government or nongovernment, is to uphold the rule of law and the safety of the citizen," he told BBC radio. "But alongside that, of course, is to uphold civil liberties and the right to free speech. It is getting that balance right that will be very important."

The Islamic Forum Europe warned that the measures could jeopardize national unity in Britain.

"If these proposed measures are allowed to see the light of day, they will increase tensions and alienate communities. The measures are counterproductive and will encourage more radicalization," group president Musleh Faradhi said. "Many Muslims will perceive our prime minister as playing into the hands of the terrorists."

He criticized the government's plans to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir — the radical Islamic group that calls for the formation of an Islamic caliphate and is banned in several central Asian countries. Supporters insist it is a nonviolent group persecuted by corrupt governments.

"Proscribing it will be counterproductive," Faradhi said. "It will give a green light to despotic leaders in the Muslim world to silence political dissenters."

Meanwhile, three men appeared in court Saturday to face charges they did not disclose information about the whereabouts of a suspect in the failed July 21 London bomb attacks.

The Metropolitan Police said Shadi Sami Abdel Gadir, 22, Omar Almagboul, 20, and Mohamed Kabashi, 23, were charged under the Terrorism Act with withholding information that they "knew or believed might be of material assistance in securing the apprehension, prosecution or conviction" of suspected bomber Hamdi Issac, who is being held in Rome. The court ordered them to remain in custody until their next hearing Thursday.

Three other people already face similar charges, including Issac's wife and sister-in-law.

 

PHOTOS Click image to enlarge STORIES BACKGROUND LINKS • 'Serious Concern' at U.N. Over Iran • Iran Removes U.N. Seals at Nuke Plant • U.S. Patient With Iran's Lack of Cooperation • Iran Resumes Uranium Conversion Activities • Iran Swears in Ahmadinejad as President • Iran Rejects European Nuke Proposal • Europe Offers Nuke Proposal to Iran • White House Says Iranian Leader Led Movement

KHONDAB, Iran — As the U.S. and Europe struggle to stop Iran's (search) uranium development, the Iranians are pushing ahead on another track — construction of a heavy-water reactor that Iran says will be used only for peaceful purposes but which could also produce plutonium for a nuclear bomb.

It will take at least another four years for Iran to complete the reactor, making it a less immediate worry for the West than the uranium program, parts of which are either in operation or ready to go at a moment's notice.

But ultimately, the heavy-water reactor could prove more dangerous, since bombs made with plutonium are smaller and easier to fit onto a ballistic missile.

In a comprehensive package aimed at reining in Iran's nuclear program, Europe proposed that it give up the heavy-water project in return for a light-water reactor, seen by arms control experts as easier to monitor to ensure it's not being used for weapons.

Iran — which says its nuclear program is peaceful — rejected the entire package this week. The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization called the heavy-water reactor offer a "joke."

"We have developed this capability. The heavy-water project today is a reality," Gholamreza Aghazadeh (search), who is also vice president, said on state-run television. "This knowledge belongs to Iran. Nobody can take it from us. As they (Europeans) see Iran's determination, they will be forced to show flexibility and accept it."

While Iran has agreed to suspend parts of its uranium program as a gesture in negotiations with Europe, it has repeatedly rejected European calls for it to freeze the heavy-water project, which is moving full steam ahead.

"Work has not been halted there even for a day, allowing Iran to constantly advance its heavy-water project," lawmaker Rasoul Sediqi Bonabi (search) told The Associated Press on Friday. Bonabi, a nuclear scientist, said Iran developed the plant because the world would not give it "a drop of heavy water."

Iran says the heavy-water reactor will have a range of peaceful applications. Iran intends to use the facility in the pharmaceutical, biological and biotechnological fields as well as in cancer diagnosis and control.

Iran insists its nuclear program is aimed only at producing electricity, but the United States accuses it of secretly intending to build nuclear weapons. Europe is trying through negotiations to persuade Iran to give up technology that can be used for military purposes and limit its program to possessing reactors using fuel provided from abroad.

The 40-megawatt heavy-water reactor could produce enough plutonium for a nuclear weapon each year, an amount experts commonly say is 8.8 pounds.

The reactor — ringed with anti-aircraft guns as are all of Iran's nuclear facilities — is being built at the foot of a mountain in the deserts outside the small town of Khondab, 60 miles northwest of the central city of Arak.

Construction began in 2004 and is expected to be completed by 2009. Most Iranian nuclear facilities have portions built underground to protect them from airstrike — and Aghazadeh suggested that an underground portion may be built at Khondab as well.

"This knowledge belongs to us. It (the knowledge) won't be destroyed if attacked. Equipment could also be moved under the mountain," he said.

A plant next door began producing heavy water for the reactor last year, using water from the nearby Qara-Chai River. It produces 16 tons of heavy water a year, putting it on track to have the 90 tons needed by the time the reactor is finished.

Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (search), the U.N. nuclear watchdog, visited the Khondab facility in February 2003.

North Korea followed a similar two-track process in its nuclear program, which it overtly says aims to produce weapons. In 1994, it signed a deal with the United States freezing its plutonium program, but in 2003 it was discovered that North Korea was secretly building a uranium program.

Nuclear weapons can be produced using either plutonium or highly enriched uranium as the explosive core. Either substance can be produced in the process of running a reactor.

Uranium is enriched by turning the raw ore into gas, which is then spun in centrifuges. If it is enriched to a low level, it can be used as fuel for a reactor; at a high level, it can be used for a bomb.

Iran's enrichment program is at an advanced stage, with thousands of centrifuges ready to start working. While Iran is continuing its suspension of enrichment, it ended its freeze this week on the first step in the process — turning raw uranium into gas — bringing a sharp rebuke from Europe.

Reactors fueled by enriched uranium use regular — or "light" — water as a "moderator" in the chain reaction that produces energy. The Khandub reactor, however, uses "heavy water," which contains a heavier hydrogen particle. That allows the reactor to run on natural uranium mined by Iran, forgoing the expensive process of enrichment.

The spent fuel from a heavy-water reactor can be reprocessed to extract plutonium for use in a bomb.