THE TENSION: The Decline and Fall of Western Civ for 3 Nov.

After reading: wash, rinse and repeat.

The spectre of a nuclear race in the Middle East was raised yesterday when six Arab states announced that they were embarking on programmes to master atomic technology, according to the Times Online. The move, which follows the failure by the West to curb Iran’s controversial nuclear programme, could see a rapid spread of nuclear reactors in one of the world’s most unstable regions, stretching from the Gulf to the Levant and into North Africa.

“Some Middle East states, including Egypt, Morocco, Algeria and Saudi Arabia, have shown initial interest [in using] nuclear power primarily for desalination purposes,” Tomihiro Taniguch, the deputy director-general of the IAEA, told the business weekly Middle East Economic Digest. He said that they had held preliminary discussions with the governments and that the IAEA’s technical advisory programme would be offered to them to help with studies into creating power plants.

Also from the Times Online, Iraq is bracing itself for another surge of violence tomorrow, when Saddam Hussein is expected to be sentenced to death for crimes against humanity.

Iraq’s national security adviser, Mowaffak al-Rubaie, told The Times that the central provinces of Baghdad, Diyala and Salahaddin would be placed under curfew. “There are more security measures under consideration,” he added.

In other nuclear news, the recent security breach at Los Alamos National Laboratory was very serious, with sensitive materials being taken out of the facility — possibly including information on how to deactivate locks on nuclear weapons, officials tell CBS News. However:

"None of the documents in question were classified Top Secret," read a statement released by the lab. "None of the materials included any of the most sensitive nuclear weapons information."

Russia proposed extensive changes on Friday to soften and shorten a U.N. draft resolution that would impose tough sanctions on Iran for its nuclear ambitions, U.S. and Russian envoys said, according to Reuters.

"The Russians gave us a complete line-in, line-out version of edits," said U.S. Ambassador John Bolton. "We will distribute our line-in, line-out text later this afternoon."

AP reports clambakes, crabcakes, swordfish steaks and even humble fish sticks could be little more than a fond memory in a few decades. If current trends of overfishing and pollution continue, the populations of just about all seafood face collapse by 2048, a team of ecologists and economists warns in a report in Friday's issue of the journal Science.

"Whether we looked at tide pools or studies over the entire world's ocean, we saw the same picture emerging. In losing species we lose the productivity and stability of entire ecosystems," said the lead author Boris Worm of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
"I was shocked and disturbed by how consistent these trends are - beyond anything we suspected," Worm said.

JS Online reports vandals in Milwaukee wreck a house owned by a 92 year old woman. Every room in the home was damaged, causing an estimated $100,000 in destruction.

The mystery of cars going haywire as they were driven along a windy coastal path in Norfolk U.K. has been solved, reports Sky News. The Ministry of Defence has admitted what locals always suspected - their cars were being zapped by a high-powered radar.

ABC News reports a U.S. man who found 300 letters to God floating in the Atlantic Ocean says he will donate them to a church instead of selling them on eBay, following protests from religious people.