That day may still be years away, but Raytheon, one of the companies working on this technology for the Army, is riding the coattails of “Iron Man,” which helped popularize the notion of such high-tech armored suits, to show off the prototype it’s already created. The company Monday released a video featuring actor Clark Gregg, who plays Agent Phil Coulson in the movie version of “Iron Man,” talking about the latest updates to the suit.
Raytheon’s second-generation exoskeleton (XOS 2), essentially a wearable robotics suit, was unveiled for the first time.

Raytheon’s second-generation exoskeleton, essentially a wearable robotics suit, was unveiled recently at the company’s Salt Lake City research facility. The suit is lighter, stronger and faster than its predecessor, yet it uses 50 percent less power.

While such technology may not have quite the capabilities provided by the “Iron Man” suit of comic book fame, it does have similar goals of bestowing the wearer with superhuman strength. A video of the second-generation exoskeleton robotics suit shows a test engineer karate-chopping wood, performing push-ups and lifting weights.

In reality, the main purpose of the suit is to enable soldiers to carry large amounts of weight on the battlefield.

Raytheon officials say the suit could have two versions: a combat one that goes just from the legs down and would be used primarily to support a backpack, and a full-body logistics version, which would enable a soldier to carry even more supplies.

A rival suit is being developed by Lockheed Martin Corp.

Advocates both for and against the approval of AquaBounty Technologies’ genetically modified AquAdvantage® Salmon as a food source met in Washington yesterday and today in a series of hearings orchestrated by the FDA. Dr. Larissa Rudenko of the FDA, stated that the group has not yet made a decision, but that they “are looking for good and constructive conversation.”

Because this analysis is entirely new ground for the FDA, their Veterinary Medicine Advisory Committee is using the regulations they would to evaluate veterinary pharmaceuticals, rather those used for than food safety. According to Section 5 of the group’s overview of this engineered Atlantic salmon, “That rDNA construct meets the definition of a ‘drug’ under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act” as “an article intended to alter the structure or function of the body of man or animal.” Aqua Bounty Technologies, the developer, has filed a new animal drug application under those guidelines.

Genetic engineering introduces desirable traits of one living being into another, using recombinant DNA , or rDNA technology. In the case of AquAdvantage® Salmon, scientists have injected the fertilized eggs of Atlantic salmon with a growth gene from Pacific Chinook salmon, as well as genetic material from an eel-like fish called ocean pout, which overrides the Atlantic salmon’s propensity to stop growing in colder weather.

This allows the AquAdvantage® Salmon to grow to twice the size it normally would, in half the time, as well as effectively rendering the vast majority of the fish sterile – which both prevents the altered fish to breed with wild populations of fish, and protects the company’s intellectual material.

“Both land-based resources and aquaculture resources are stressed as are wild-caught fisheries, and without improvements in productivity and efficiency, it’s hard to imagine how we’ll meet the protein needs of the developing population over the next 20 to 30 years,” AquaBounty Technologies Executive Director, President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Ron Stotish told the committee on Monday.

Dr. Yonathan Zohar, chair of the Department of Marine Biotechnology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County agreed, saying, “There is no doubt in my mind that these kinds of technologies need to make it to the industry.” He also noted he believes the research will lead to developing fish with higher disease resistance and more environmental tolerance. “And if we do it right, there will also be health benefits.”

Opponents of this modified salmon’s entry into the food system assert that while FDA members generally considered the fish to be safe for consumption, there simply has not been enough testing, nor a period of time enough to assess its longer-term impact on the ecosystem or the human body. “This is a dangerously limited set of data. Even the FDA acknowledges problems in the sample size, what’s the rush?” said Wenonah Hauter, with the consumer watchdog group Food & Water Watch.

The struggle for civil rights forged a national commitment to preserving free speech in the face of hostile audiences. It is alarming how quickly the Koran controversy has melted that resolve.

Initially, everyone from Mayor Bloomberg to the White House affirmed a right to burn the book even as they condemned the act. Then Gen. Davide Petraeus got involved, followed by the FBI, and now Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer says Koran burning may not be protected speech after all.

The key to this rapid reversal was General Petraeus’ warning that Koran burning “could endanger troops” and the war effort. Although styled as a request not a demand, his comments laid the legal foundation for compelled government censorship. The reason is that First Amendment rights are not absolute. The Constitution permits the government to censor speech if necessary to achieve a compelling government interest. This is a very high standard, but the fact that the nation’s top commander made a rare public appeal for restraint will be cited as strong evidence that avoiding offense to Muslims is essential to the national interest.

Once this dangerous premise is accepted, the door is open to court injunctions against speech that inflames Muslim sentiment in strategically important locations.

It has already started.

Last week, the New Jersey Transit Authority fired an 11-year veteran employee for burning the Koran at a 9/11 rally. Ordinarily, a government employee cannot be dismissed for expressing personal views on a matter of public concern unless it interferes with the orderly functioning of the workplace. Should he sue, the government may try the “Petraeus defense.”

Hopefully it will fail.

In a series of cases arising out of civil rights demonstrations, the Supreme Court explicitly held that free expression cannot be limited “simply because it might offend a hostile mob.”

An alternative rule, would reward bad behavior creating what First Amendment experts call a “heckler’s veto.” Dunlap v. City of Chicago illustrates the extent of this principle. Officials had denied demonstrators a permit to march in a predominantly white area because every prior similar protest in the vicinity had resulted in violence. When they sued, the district court not only ordered the city to permit the parade, it also demanded officials provide policemen “in such numbers as … are required to afford adequate protection” to the marchers. When the violence officials feared materialized, the court allowed a suit against the city for providing insufficient police protection.

The argument that speech should be censored to prevent violence was rejected in the civil rights context and it should not be accepted now.

That is what made it so frustrating to hear the president, in the very same appearance, denounce Koran burning for fear of offending Muslims, but insist the First Amendment rights of the Ground Zero Mosque planners trump the “extraordinary sensitivities around 9/11.” In essence, opponents of the GZM project are being punished for not being violent.

The perverseness of this approach is even starker considering there is no genuine First Amendment issue in the Ground Zero context. That provision places constraints on the government; not on the general public’s right to pressure a religious group. By contrast, the Administration’s pressure on the Florida pastor, which included dispatching the FBI to impress upon him that his life would be in danger, carries the distinct flavor of prohibited government interference.

Legal wrangling aside, the administration has it backwards from a strategic standpoint. Insisting Americans curb their First Amendment rights in deference to Muslims, but not asking Muslims to do the same when Americans are offended creates a privileged status for Islam which is exactly what the extremists want. Their goal is to impose a radical brand of Islamic law on society at large. Censoring speech that insults or critiques Islam is the first step in this process and the US government should not be doing it for them.

Even at the tactical level it doesn’t make sense. The Obama administration argued Koran burnings could function as a “recruitment tool for Al Qaeda.” But anyone who could actually be driven to terrorism by a stunt from a handful of individuals thousands of miles away is no moderate. He was going to be set off eventually anyway. Better to flush him into the open now.

Senior military officials also worried it would hurt our efforts to “win hearts and minds.” Afghans “do not understand either the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment or the fact that President Barack Obama can’t simply issue a decree to stop” Koran burning.

It would be one thing if Afghan operations were just beginning and America’s good faith needed to be established. But U.S. forces have been there 9 years. If the billions spent and thousands lost are not proof enough of America’s commitment, nothing ever will be.

As such, curbing free speech rights buys only temporary appeasement and it comes at a high cost. Not only do we compromise our principles, but it emboldens extremists who will conclude the Administration is so fearful of retaliation it jettisoned its inaugural promise to reject the “false …choice between our safety and our ideals.”

Lawmakers gave cash-strapped states $10 billion last month to save 145,000 teachers’ jobs. The funds were meant to reduce classroom crowding and restore programs lost to state budget cuts.

But some governors have other ideas for the money, namely using the funds to close their budget shortfalls. Several are planning to reduce state aid to school districts by the amount they receive from the feds. Others are looking to use the money for school construction and improvements.

And if state tax revenues fall short later this year, even more governors will likely slash state aid, figuring schools have the federal funds as a cushion.

The shift has left educators worried they’ll never see the extra money they need to retain teachers and other personnel.

“They are not doing the right thing for students,” said Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, which has 3.4 million members. “We know what the intent was. [Governors] should use it in this fashion and not to balance their budgets.”

Governors, however, feel differently. In Rhode Island, Gov. Donald Carcieri wants to claw back $32.9 million in state aid to school districts to help the state close a $320 million deficit for the coming fiscal year.

Part of the pinch comes from the fact that the Ocean State is receiving only $70 million in federal Medicaid assistance, instead of the $107 million it had budgeted. That makes the education money all the more attractive.

“We can use these funds elsewhere in the budget,” said Amy Kempe, the governor’s spokeswoman.
What teachers spend on their students

Rhode Island educators, however, were hoping to use the funds to hire back or replace the roughly 450 teachers who were laid off or retired. The additional personnel would allow the school districts to offer a greater choice of languages, more gifted and talented programs, additional reading and math instruction and full-day kindergarten, they said.

“In tough times, every penny helps and these are a lot of pennies,” said Robert Walsh Jr., director of the state chapter of the National Education Association.

South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds is planning a similar move. He intends to reduce state aid by the $26.3 million that districts will receive from the federal government and spend it on other state needs.

In the Mount Rushmore State, which hasn’t had many teacher layoffs, the plan is also tinged with political perspective. Rounds doesn’t want schools to get used to the extra funds since they won’t be available next year, said his spokesman, Joe Kafka.

Legally, governors can reduce state aid as long as certain criteria are met. They are not allowed the add to the state’s rainy day accounts, nor can they let their state education funding fall below a certain level. But federal officials are encouraging states to support their schools.

“We’re urging them to keep the money for education spending, but there is some flexibility in the law,” a federal Department of Education spokeswoman said.

Some state educators, however, don’t mind that their governors want flexibility as long as the money stays in the school system.

In Arkansas, for instance, Gov. Mike Beebe sees the $91 million federal grant as an opportunity for school districts to use state money for school construction and improvement. The state has few teachers on the unemployment line.

“The more flexibility the local districts can have, the better they’ll be,” said Richard Abernathy, executive director of the Arkansas Association of Educational Administrators.

Three states — South Carolina, Texas and Wyoming — are still waiting to get their federal funds.

South Carolina did not apply for its $143 million share after learning that it did not qualify because it had cut funding for higher education too deeply. Gov. Mark Sanford, a Republican, lashed out at the Obama administration, saying he did not want to cut money for law enforcement and health care just to funnel it to higher education.

Texas, meanwhile, had its application rejected because it did not meet a special provision in the law that applies only to the Lone Star State, which requires the governor to promise not to cut state aid for three years. Gov. Rick Perry said state law prevents him from making such an assurance. Texas was slated to receive $830 million.

Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas., inserted the provision because he was concerned that Perry would slash state aid to schools, which Perry did when he received education stimulus funds last year, according to the lawmaker.

“The obligation that this amendment places on Texas is to spend new education dollars on education purposes,” Doggett said.

And Wyoming chose not to apply for its $17.5 million in funds because it has not had any mass layoffs of teachers. The state asked federal Department of Education if it could use the money to build schools and was told it could not.

The state can still request the funds, education officials said.

The increase in home repossessions came even as the number of properties entering the foreclosure process slowed for the seventh month in a row, foreclosure listing firm RealtyTrac Inc. said Thursday.

In all, banks repossessed 95,364 properties last month, up 3 percent from July and an increase of 25 percent from August 2009, RealtyTrac said.

August makes the ninth month in a row that the pace of homes lost to foreclosure has increased on an annual basis. The previous high was in May.

Banks have been stepping up repossessions to clear out their backlog of bad loans with an eye on eventually placing the foreclosed properties on the market, but they can’t afford to simply dump the properties on the market.

Concerns are growing that the housing market recovery could stumble amid stubbornly high unemployment, a sluggish economy and faltering consumer confidence. U.S. home sales have collapsed since federal homebuyer tax credits expired in April.

That’s one reason fewer than one-third of homes repossessed by lenders are on the market, said Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at RealtyTrac.

“These (properties) are going to come to market, but very slowly because nobody wants to overwhelm a soft buyer’s market with too much distressed inventory for fear of what it would do for house prices,” he said.

As a result, lenders are putting off initiating the foreclosure process on homeowners who have missed payments, letting borrowers stay in their homes longer.

The number of properties receiving an initial default notice — the first step in the foreclosure process — slipped 1 percent last month from July, but was down 30 percent versus August last year, RealtyTrac said.

Initial defaults have fallen on an annual basis the past seven months. They peaked in April 2009.

Still, the number of homes scheduled to be sold at auction for the first time increased 9 percent from July and rose 2 percent from August last year. If they don’t sell at auction, these homes typically end up going back to the lender.

More than 2.3 million homes have been repossessed by lenders since the recession began in December 2007, according to RealtyTrac. The firm estimates more than 1 million American households are likely to lose their homes to foreclosure this year.

In all, 338,836 properties received a foreclosure-related warning in August, up 4 percent from July, but down 5 percent from the same month last year, RealtyTrac said. That translates to one in 381 U.S. homes.

The firm tracks notices for defaults, scheduled home auctions and home repossessions — warnings that can lead up to a home eventually being lost to foreclosure.

Among states, Nevada posted the highest foreclosure rate last month, with one in every 84 households receiving a foreclosure notice. That’s 4.5 times the national average.

Rounding out the top 10 states with the highest foreclosure rate in August were: Florida, Arizona, California, Idaho, Utah, Georgia, Michigan, Illinois and Hawaii.

Economic woes, such as unemployment or reduced income, are now the main catalysts for foreclosures.

Lenders are offering a variety of programs to help homeowners modify their loans, but their success rates vary. Hundreds of thousands of homeowners can’t qualify or fall back into default.

The Obama administration has rolled out numerous attempts to tackle the foreclosure crisis but has made only a small dent in the problem. Nearly half of the 1.3 million homeowners who enrolled in the Obama administration’s flagship mortgage-relief program have fallen out.

The program, known as Making Home Affordable, has provided permanent help to about 390,000 homeowners since March 2009.

Baton Rouge District Judge Donald Johnson ruled that investigators’ records of the Memorial Medical Center deaths don’t involve “criminal litigation which is either pending or which can be reasonably anticipated,” so they have to be disclosed under state open records laws. It’s the second such order by a state judge, following a 2007 decision that was vacated by an appeals court.

Hospital workers identified only as John and Jane Doe had sued to block the public release of the file, claiming the records are covered by grand jury secrecy rules, that they should have been considered confidential informants and that releasing the documents would violate their privacy. CNN and the New Orleans Times-Picayune are among the parties to the lawsuit, which also included state and local prosecutors.

“We are glad that the Louisiana court has recognized that the investigatory file into the deaths that occurred at Memorial Medical Center in the days following Hurricane Katrina can no longer be withheld from disclosure under the public records laws,” CNN said in a statement on the decision. “CNN remains committed to covering New Orleans post-Katrina.”

The Louisiana Supreme Court sent the case back to the district court in July to rule on whether criminal litigation in the case was expected, leading to the ruling received today. There was no immediate word on whether any of those parties would appeal, but Lori Mince, one of the lawyers who represented CNN, said she expected someone will do so.

“Unless everyone is going to fold up their tent, which seems unlikely, we’re in for another several months of appeals,” Mince said.

The case stems from allegations that several seriously ill, mostly elderly patients had been euthanized by medical staff at Memorial Hospital following the 2005 hurricane, when floodwaters rose around the hospital and conditions inside deteriorated. A doctor and two nurses were arrested in connection with the deaths, but a grand jury declined to bring charges against them in 2007.

CNN was the first to report the allegations of euthanasia, six weeks after the hurricane. Then-Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti Jr. ordered the arrest of Dr. Anna Pou and two nurses on preliminary charges of second-degree murder in the deaths of four of the patients.

Foti said the four, who ranged in age from their early 60s to their early 90s, were given a “lethal cocktail” of morphine and another depressant, midazolam hydrochloride. Experts he consulted reported that of all the people who died in Katrina, only at Memorial was that combination of drugs to blame.

Pou and the nurses, Lori Budo and Cheri Landry, denied the charges, and their attorneys said they acted heroically by staying to treat patients rather than evacuate. Foti gave Budo and Landry immunity in exchange for their testimony, but in July 2007, a grand jury refused to indict Pou. Then-New Orleans District Attorney Eddie Jordan called the case closed and said he would no longer pursue it.

But the grand jury never heard testimony from five specialists who advised Foti that the patients were deliberately killed with overdoses of drugs. All five were brought in by Foti’s office to analyze the deaths, and concluded the patients were homicide victims.

Protesters who oppose the building of an Islamic center near the former World Trade Center site have gathered a few blocks from Ground Zero, can be heard chanting “USA! USA!,” and are holding signs reading “Never forgive, never forget, no WTC mosque,” according to the Associated Press.

Just a few blocks away a group of about 1000 people gathered by City Hall and marched towards Ground Zero in support of the building of the Islamic center. Leah Christiani was in that crowd.

“It’s so unfortunate that we had to be here to counter-protest what’s going on — but at the same time I think if we weren’t here pushing back, it would be even worse, because it would be allowing this wave of hatred to just take over the country,” Christiani said.

“In this country, we have freedom of religion, so if a group purchases an area…they should be able to build whatever they want there!”

Earlier today in a speech at the Pentagon, President Obama followed a week of highly charged political discourse with a reminder that America is not at war with Islam and a call for national unity.

“As Americans, we will not and never will be at war with Islam,” Obama said at the memorial service. “It was not a religion that attacked us that September day. It was al-Qaeda, a sorry band of men which perverts religion.”

“Those who attacked us sought to demoralize us, to divide us, to deprive us of the very unity, the very ideals that make America America,” he added. “Today we declare once more we will never hand them that victory..For our cause is just, our spirit is strong, our resolve is unwavering.”

Earlier this morning on his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama urged Americans to look towards common interests and unity.

“We are one nation — one people — bound not only by grief, but by a set of common ideals,” Obama said.

“This is a time of difficulty for our country. And it is often in such moments that some try to stoke bitterness — to divide us based on our differences, to blind us to what we have in common. But on this day, we are reminded that at our best, we do not give in to this temptation,” Obama said.

“We will never forget the images of planes vanishing into buildings; of photos hung by the families of the missing. And while nine years have come and gone since that September morning, the passage of time will never diminish the pain and loss forever seared in the consciousness of our nation,” Obama said.

Meanwhile, Vice President Joe Biden joined New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and hundreds of mourners who lost friends and family in the attacks at Ground Zero in lower Manhattan.

First lady Michelle Obama was joined by former first lady Laura Bush in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, where Flight 93 crashed.

Former President George W. Bush reflected on those Americans who were called to action on that morning, and have worked tirelessly since.

“We recall the many acts of heroism on that day, and we honor those who work tirelessly to prevent another attack,” said Bush in a statement released this morning. “May God bless our great country and those who defend her.”

The ninth anniversary of the attacks has been embroiled in controversy over the planned Muslim center near Ground Zero and more recently with Florida Pastor Terry Jones, who threatened to burn Korans on today’s anniversary of 9/11.

Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck will rendezvous in Alaska Saturday for what Palin calls a gathering of “patriots who will ‘never forget’” the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Critics, however, say that nine years after the terror attacks, the political language around the anniversary has changed and become divisive. The Palin comment carries the suggestion that some Americans are patriots who remember while others are detractors who forget.

Organizers of the event have pledged it will be non-political and similar to the Washington, D.C., rally the duo held two weeks ago. But with tickets running up to $200 a head and the featured speakers two politically-charged figures skeptics see manipulation of a solemn anniversary — and the latest sign the tragedy of nine years ago has become national political fodder.

“Right now, this is the most heartbreaking anniversary,” said Donna O’Connor, whose daughter was killed in the World Trade Center. “The politicization is worse than I ever could have imagined.”

For years, the 9/11 attacks had been unofficially off-limits – even deemed politically risky — for use by elected officials and candidates for office in their appeals to voters.

On the first anniversary of the attacks in 2002, then New York Gov. George Pataki read the Gettysburg Address, rather than an original speech, for fear of politicizing the memorial.

“I thought it was important not to have politicians speaking and to let it be a moment where instead of a politician giving a message, we reflected on the message sent by the thousands who died on Sept. 11 and the thousands of others who a year later were still working so hard to bring New York and America back,” Pataki told ABCNews.com.

When George W. Bush in 2004, and Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton in 2007 raised Sept. 11 imagery in their ads they were widely scolded.

But now the emotional flashpoint of 9/11 is being much more freely used, with the controversial Islamic center planned for near Ground Zero driving national debate, imagery of the attacks cropping up in midterm election campaign ads, and the anniversary shaping up to be a day of political rallies instead of bipartisan displays.

Pataki and others believe the partisanship around 9/11 is unseemly and regrettable.

“I do lament the fact that the tremendous sense of unity we had after Sept. 11 is no longer the case,” said Pataki. “We were for a while all united, everyone, young and old, black and white, rich and poor, Republican and Democrat, liberal and conservative. Sept. 11 gave us the opportunity to set a national agenda instead of a partisan agenda. Unfortunately, now we’re seeing the opposite.”

The debate over construction of a Muslim community center in Manhattan and First Amendment rights to religious freedom have also in large part opened the door to politicization of 9/11 in the 2010 campaign.

Missouri Republican Rep. Roy Blunt, who’s running for U.S. Senate, posted a video on his campaign website last month juxtaposing his opponent Robin Carnahan’s support for Islamic center with images of the 9/11 destruction which occurred just two blocks away. He later claimed not to know about the ad and it was pulled down, but the audio of Carnahan’s statements remains.

In Kentucky, Republican candidates Trey Grayson and Rand Paul both unleashed ads featuring 9/11 during their GOP senate primary battle. And in New York, Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Lazio has defended putting scenes from the attacks to eerie music in a video ad highlighting his opposition to the proposed Ground Zero Mosque. “This was one of the most traumatic attacks in living American history and people are going to use it to make points,” said David Perlmutter an expert in use of imagery in political communications at the University of Iowa.

“There was a grace period after the attacks when people didn’t want to think politically or see politicians using images from 9/11 in a calculated way,” he said. “But war and politics have never been inseparable.”

As for Palin and Beck’s stated desire to keep politics out of their event on Saturday, Perlmutter said it may be impossible to do because of their very nature.

“When you are an elected official or hope to be an elected official, it’s hard to separate politics from what you do all the time,” he said.

And even if they could, opposing local political groups are already planning rallies before the event and outside the venue, the Dena’ina Civic and Convention Center in Anchorage.

“I’m not going to say what others should or shouldn’t do,” said Pataki of the Palin-Beck event. “I certainly believe it’s important we never forget we were attacked and commemorate the day appropriately.”

The administration told a federal appeals court in Washington on Wednesday that the order by U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth stops “funding for embryonic stem cell research in its tracks.”

Lamberth rejected the administration’s request to let funding continue while it pursues an appeal of his order.

Medical researchers value stem cells because they are master cells that can turn into any tissue of the body. Research eventually could lead to cures for spinal cord injuries, Parkinson’s disease and other ailments.

National police spokesman Leonel Sauceda called the attack in the northern city of San Pedro Sula “a massacre.”

Authorities initially reported 15 dead, but three of the injured later died of their wounds, said assistant police commissioner Hector Ivan Mejia.

“Apparently the massacre was carried out as part of a turf battle between small-scale drug gangs, given that that neighborhood has conflicts because of the presence of gang members,” Mejia said.

San Pedro Sula has been a hotbed of gunbattles between drug traffickers and among the country’s Mara street gangs.

Sauceda said at least four men using assault rifles were involved in the attack at the small shoe factory. He said 23 employees were present and all were either killed or wounded.

Also Tuesday, thousands of supporters of former President Manuel Zelaya staged street protests in the capital, Tegucigalpa, to demand the ousted leader’s return as well as a 15 percent rise in the minimum wage, currently about $290 a month.

Zelaya was removed in a June 2009 coup, and his term expired in January. He was replaced by Porfirio Lobo, who won a fall presidential elections that had been scheduled before Zelaya’s ouster.

Lobo has said Zelaya, who has been living in the Dominican Republic, is welcome to return to Honduras, but says he must face charges of fraud, usurping other institutions’ powers and falsifying documents.

The demonstrators included unionized workers, government employees and students. They blocked traffic in at least two points in the city, and demonstrations were held in other cities.

One small group of masked protesters shattered windows at a television station, the offices of the country’s Human Rights Commission and a bank branch.

Ali Akbar Salehi’s late Monday comments were apparently in response to a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, expressing alarm about Iran’s decision to bar some of its inspectors.

The report followed Iran’s recent decision to strip two inspectors of the right to monitor its nuclear activities after they reported what they said were undeclared nuclear experiments.

ISNA also quoted Salehi as saying Iran asked the agency to replace the two and that it has accepted the replacements.

“This is our right as well as the right of other members of the agency to choose the inspectors,” Salehi said. “Basically, all member nations select from a list provided by the agency.”

The West, led by the United States, suspects that Iran’s nuclear program is geared toward making weapons. Iran denies the charge, saying the program is for peaceful purposes only.

Salehi, also the Islamic Republic’s vice president, urged the Vienna-based atomic agency to steer a fair and neutral course, arguing that the IAEA’s credibility depended on that.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast echoed Salehi’s comments on Tuesday.

“We have the right to replace inspectors regarding their background and activities,” he said.

In a related development, six Arab nations across the Persian Gulf from Iran issued a statement Tuesday calling on Iran to cooperate with the IAEA, saying they wanted Tehran to adhere to the principles of international law and help efforts to make the Middle East a region free of weapons of mass destruction.

The statement was issued by the Gulf Cooperation Council, a loose political and economic alliance that groups Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman.

The statement’s reference to a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction appeared to reflect fears by the six nations over Iran’s possible development of nuclear weapons.