Al Qaeda in Africa says beheads French hostage: agency

NOUAKCHOTT (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's North African arm said it had beheaded a French hostage in retaliation for France's intervention in Mali, Mauritania's ANI news agency reported on Tuesday, citing a commander for the group.

In what ANI reported was a telephone call to the agency, which has close links to Islamist militants, the commander said Philippe Verdon had been beheaded on March 10 "in response to the French military intervention in the north of Mali", ANI reported.

Verdon was one of two French hostages kidnapped in the northern Mali town of Hombori in November 2011. The French foreign ministry declined to comment.

Another 14 French hostages are detained in Western African, including seven believed to be held in the Sahel by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and its affiliates.

One of AQIM's leaders, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, had pledged revenge after France launched a campaign in January to dislodge the group and other Islamist militants who had hijacked a Tuareg rebellion in the Sahel nation and seized the northern half of the country.

After driving them from the main cities of Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal in a swift, nine-week assault, some 1,600 French and Chadian troops began searching for Islamist rebels in their pocket hideouts in the mountainous region of northern Mali.

The AQIM commander described Verdon as a French spy. He said that French President Francois Hollande "bore the responsibility for the remaining hostages".

When asked by the agency whether Belmokhtar had been killed, he neither denied nor confirmed it. There have been conflicting reports on whether Belmokhtar was killed in the French military campaign against the rebels.

(Reporting by Laurent Prieur and John Irish; Writing by Bate Felix; Editing by Michael Roddy)

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UN agency cancels Gaza marathon over ban on women

JERUSALEM (AP) — A U.N. aid agency has canceled the marathon in Gaza following a ban on women runners imposed by the territory's militant Islamic Hamas rulers.

UNWRA, which assists Palestinian refugees and also sponsors and organizes the event, announced on Tuesday that plans for the April race have been scrapped.

A statement from agency says that "this disappointing decision follows discussions with the authorities in Gaza who have insisted that no women should participate" in the marathon.

Hamas has ruled Gaza since 2007 when it ousted its rival Fatah movement in street battles in the coastal strip.

The group is cracking down on behavior it deems contrary to Islam and has already banned women from riding on the backs of motorbikes, smoking water pipes, and men from working in hair salons.

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UN nuclear agency documents Iran atom advances

VIENNA (AP) — U.N. nuclear inspectors have counted nearly 200 advanced machines fully or partially installed at Iran's main uranium enrichment site, the International Atomic Energy Agency reported Thursday, confirming diplomats' accounts that Tehran has begun a major upgrade of a program that can be used in the making of atomic arms.

Iran denies it wants such weapons and says it is enriching only to make reactor fuel and for scientific and medical purposes under international law specifically allowing such activities. But because it hid its enrichment program — and other nuclear activities — for decades, many countries fear that it ultimately wants to enrich to weapons-grade level, suitable for arming nuclear warheads.

Iran announced last month that it planned to upgrade its Natanz enrichment facility, then said earlier this month that it had started doing so.

On Wednesday, diplomats told The Associated Press that upward of 100 enriching centrifuges had already been installed.

However, the IAEA report, circulated Thursday to the 35-nation agency board, was the first independent and on-record confirmation that the work had begun and was advancing. The confidential IAEA report, which was leaked to news media, said IAEA inspectors saw 180 of the high-tech IR 2m centrifuges fully or partially mounted at Natanz during a Feb. 6 inspection tour.

The advance is significant both in terms of technology and timing. The IR-2m centrifuges can enrich three to five times faster than the outmoded machines now being used at Natanz. For nations fearing that Iran may want to make nuclear arms that means a quicker way of getting there, should Tehran actually break out of its present peaceful enrichment program to openly work on a weapon.

The start of the upgrade is also of concern to six world powers that are preparing to open talks with Iran about its nuclear program on Tuesday in Kazakhstan. They want Tehran to cut back on enrichment, saying the installation of new machines instead sends the signal that the Islamic Republic is expanding that activity.

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