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Iran official slams 'political chicanery'

TEHRAN, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said Sunday an International Atomic Energy Agency resolution was the result of "political chicanery."

Speaking at a parliamentary session, Larijani said his country would alter its stance regarding the agency if members of the international community did not end their "carrot and stick policy," Iran's state-supported PRESS TV reported.

"If you keep up this ludicrous carrot and stick policy, Iran will make 'new arrangements' in its interaction with the agency," Larijani said.

"The resolution passed by the Board of Governors shows that we must be more alert when considering their proposals. This motion shows that they had no intention whatsoever to negotiate a solution but were engaged in 'political chicanery,'" he added.

The resolution passed by IAEA members rebuked Iran for building a secret uranium enrichment plant, the BBC reported.

According to state TV, the Iranian government responded to the IAEA resolution by ordering the Iranian nuclear agency to build five new uranium enrichment plants.

The BBC said the government's decision, which also included plans for five more enrichment sites in the future, came mere days after the resolution was announced.

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Rwanda joins British Commonwealth

SAN FERNANDO, Trinidad and Tobago, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- Rwanda has been admitted to the British Commonwealth, a post-colonial group that now numbers 54 nations, officials said.

Rwanda was admitted Saturday at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Trinidad and Tobago, the BBC reported Sunday.

In admitting Rwanda, the Commonwealth said it recognized "tremendous progress" made by the African nation since a 1994 genocide killed between 800,000 and 1 million people. Last year, Rwanda became the first country to elect a national legislature in which a majority of the members were women.

Rwanda, a former colony of Germany and Belgium, is the second country after Mozambique to be admitted without a British colonial past or constitutional link to Britain, the BBC reported.

"Rwandans are ready to seize economic, political, cultural and other opportunities offered by the Commonwealth network," the nation's information officer Louise Mushikiwabo said.

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Hondurans to elect president

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- Supporters of ousted Honduran President Manual Zelaya called on voters to boycott presidential elections Sunday.

Zelaya was forced from Honduras in June and temporarily replaced by Roberto Micheletti. Neither Zelaya nor Micheletti were official candidates in Sunday's election.

Recent polls suggested a race between conservative Porfirio Lobo from the National Party and Elvin Santos from the Liberal Party, the BBC reported.

Lobo, 61, lost to Zelaya in 2005. Santos, 46, was Zelaya's vice president.

An estimated 30,000 troops were deployed to provide security for Sunday's election, with Zelaya's supporters vowing to demonstrate for his return.

The United States and Costa Rica had said they would endorse Sunday's outcome if the election was deemed free of fraud, while Argentina and Brazil vowed not to recognize any government installed from the election.

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Report: Swiss ban building of minarets

BERN, Switzerland, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- Voter approval of a ban on minarets in Switzerland violates the religious freedom of Muslims living in that country, human rights activists said.

Exit polls showed 59 percent Swiss voters approved the ban on the building of minarets, a feature of Islamic mosques, reported the respected gjf.bern polling group.

"That Switzerland, a country with a long tradition of religious tolerance and the provision of refuge to the persecuted, should have accepted such a grotesquely discriminatory proposal is shocking indeed," Amnesty International spokesman David Diaz-Jogeix said in a statement.

The ban was proposed by the Swiss People's Party, which said minarets represent the growth of an ideology and a legal system of Muslim Sharia law incompatible with Swiss law, the BBC reported.

Opponents said the ban would violate Switzerland's commitment to freedom of religious expression and cause a backlash across the Muslim world, The Sunday Telegraph reported.

Nearly 400,000 Muslims live in Switzerland, which has just four minarets.

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Cruise ship loses power at sea

MIAMI, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- A cruise ship based out of Miami temporarily lost power while returning home from a Southern Caribbean cruise, a Norwegian Cruise Line spokeswoman said.

NCL spokeswoman Anne-Marie Matthews said the Norwegian Dawn lost power 95 miles off the coast of San Juan, Puerto Rico, but has since arrived at port and all passengers are expected to be flown back to Miami on Sunday, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.

"Everyone will get back. We will accommodate everyone's travel arrangement," Matthews said. "Of course, it is Thanksgiving weekend."

Ship staff was able to use the vessel's damaged twin engine marine cyclo-converter propulsion system to reach a San Juan port.

Passengers on the cruise were given a 75 percent discount for the cruise and 50 percent off a future cruise in response to last Friday's power outage.

The Miami Herald said with the power outage knocking out the Norwegian Dawn's air conditioning, passengers were forced to sleep on the ship's 15 decks before power was restored.

The cruise ship incident also prompted the cancellation of an NCL cruise scheduled to depart Sunday from Miami.