* Teheran hints it will not export uranium Iran wants to buy ready-made fuel for its research reactor, a senior Iranian envoy said Monday – the latest indication that Teheran is rejecting a US-backed plan that would have the Islamic Republic ship most of its enriched uranium out of the country.

* Karzai declared elected president Hamid Karzai has been declared president of Afghanistan, after election officials scrapped a planned second round of voting.

* EU leaders aim to put treaty in place by December 1 The EU’s new set of institutional rules may come into force in just over a month, ending a marathon stretch of treaty-making that took eight years, included a series of referendums and resulted in an ungainly text littered with footnotes, protocols and opt-outs.

* Clinton moderates her praise for Israel US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton moderated her praise for Israel’s offer to restrain building settlements in the West Bank areas, saying Monday it still falls short of US expectations.

* Iraq signs new overseas oil deal Iraq’s oil ministry has signed an initial agreement with a consortium led by the Italian firm, ENI, to develop the Zubair oilfield in southern Iraq.

* Palestinians accuse U.S. of killing peace prospects Pointing an accusing finger at the United States, the Palestinians on Sunday said Washington’s backing for Israeli refusal to halt Jewish settlement expansion had killed any hope of reviving peace negotiations soon.

* Russia ‘simulates’ nuclear attack on Poland Russia has provoked outrage in Poland by simulating an air and sea attack on the country during military exercises.

* Obama Appoints Anti-Israel Chuck Hagel as Intelligence Aide Jewish Republican party officials and the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) are among several groups that have called on U.S. President Barack Obama to rescind his appointment of former senator Chuck Hagel as co-chairman of his Intelligence Advisory Board.

* US Report Criticizes Israel’s Jewish Character In its 2009 International Religious Freedoms Report, the U.S. State Department accuses Israel of “governmental and legal discrimination against non-Jews and non-Orthodox streams of Judaism.”

* Kirkuk at the heart of Iraq election law deadlock Iraqi politicians have been turning up their rhetoric over Kirkuk, the oil-rich city that both Kurds in the north and Arabs in the south want to control.