Jewish Telegraphic Agency provided these news briefs.
Experts: Iran could create bomb
Iran has produced nearly enough nuclear material to create one atomic bomb, nuclear experts told The New York Times.
The experts used the figures reported in an International Atomic Energy Agency routine update, released last Wednesday, to determine that Iran could make the bomb, with some additional work, including purifying the material and putting it into a nuclear warhead. Experts do not know if Iran has this know-how.
"They clearly have enough material for a bomb," Richard Garwin, a nuclear physicist who helped invent the hydrogen bomb, told the Times. "They know how to do the enrichment. Whether they know how to design a bomb, well, that's another matter."
The IAEA report says that as of early November, Iran had enriched about 1,390 pounds of uranium. While Iran claims it is planning to use its nuclear program to generate power, the United States, Israel and other Western nations believe Iran is planning to make nuclear weapons.
The U.N. nuclear watchdog also said Iran was obstructing investigations and that without the requisite transparency, the group "will not be able to provide credible assurances about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran."
In a separate report, the Vienna-based watchdog said a Syrian building destroyed by Israeli combat planes in a September 2007 strike had the characteristics of a nuclear reactor. The report noted that Syria removed topsoil in the wake of the attack, frustrating IAEA attempts to determine with certainty whether or not the site was a reactor.
Immigrant agency to close
A 60-year-old Jewish agency that resettles refugees in New York is closing.
The New York Association of New Americans, known as NYANA, has seen its operating budget and the number of immigrants it serves drop precipitously, Crain's New York Business reported recently.
"Since the mission of resettling Jews, which was their major bread and butter, was no longer there, it made no sense to run after a ball that wasn't bouncing anymore," said Joe Lazar, a consultant who is acting as NYANA's chief executive as it dismantles operations.
NYANA was founded in 1949 to help resettle Jewish refugees fleeing persecution, mostly from the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.
Gaza closing protested
Top media executives are protesting Israel's decision to prevent journalists from entering the Gaza Strip.
The letter of protest filed with Israel's prime minister last Wednesday was signed by leaders of news outlets such as the Associated Press, Reuters, The New York Times and CNN.
"We are gravely concerned about the prolonged and unprecedented denial of access to the Gaza Strip for the international media," the letter said. "We would welcome an assurance that access to Gaza for international journalists will be restored immediately in the spirit of Israel's long-standing commitment to a free press."
When Israel closed its border crossings with Gaza two weeks ago amid an escalation of Hamas-launched rocket attacks and Israeli reprisals - except in the case of extreme humanitarian need - it also kept journalists out of the strip. Journalists are not being singled out but are prevented by the security situation from going in, just like anyone else, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev told the A.P.
Israeli journalists have been banned from entering Gaza, out of a fear for their safety, for a long time.
A handful of foreign journalists who were inside Gaza when the closure took effect remain there covering the situation along with local Palestinian staff workers.
Iranian Nuclear Program