* Ahmadinejad claims Iran now possesses 6,000 centrifuges Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asserted that Iran’s interlocutors had agreed to allow it to continue to run its program.

* Iraqi Christians urged to return Iraq’s Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has urged Christians who fled the country after the US-led invasion to return home to help rebuild the country.

* IDF vets train NY Jewish paramilitaries Yonatan Stern, the “Sgan Mefaked Hakita” (deputy squad commander) of Kitat Konenut New York, insists his “paramilitary emergency armed response team” is no “group of vigilantes or a JDL [Jewish Defense League].”

* Army deployed to calm Tripoli Lebanese tanks have been sent on to the streets of the northern port of Tripoli where bloody sectarian clashes have killed at least six people.

* Hamas nabs scores of Fatah men in Gaza Hamas security arrested dozens of supporters of the rival Fatah group, hurled grenades at the home of one Fatah leader and set up checkpoints across Gaza.

* Debate on oil speculators hits new pitch Oil prices continued their correction this week as the debate about the influence of speculators in energy markets reached a new pitch.

* Former Iranian leader rejects deadline Iran’s former president, the cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, told the international community on Friday that he rejected any deadline.

* Iran plans mass execution Iran is planning a mass execution of 30 people convicted of murder and drug trafficking.