1. Iran nuclear fuel

Iran will load domestically made nuclear fuel rods* into its Tehran Research Reactor for the first time to keep it running, a senior official told a national news agency.

Tehran had announced in January that it had successfully manufactured and tested fuel rods for use in nuclear power plants, a move to show that international sanctions are failing to stop it from making advances in nuclear know-how and to strengthen its hand in any renewed negotiations with six world powers.

2. Honduras prison fire

A fire swept through a jail in Honduras, killing at least 272 people, a forensic* services official said on February 15.

The prison was in the town of Comayagua, about 75 kilometers north of the capital Tegucigalpa.

The head of the national prison system, Danilo Orellana, said the fire broke out on Tuesday night. Officials were investigating the cause of the blaze.

3. Xi meets Obama

China and the United States on February 14 jointly released a fact sheet on strengthening U.S.-China economic relations, on the occasion of Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping’s current official visit to the United States.

The two countries vowed to promote the healthy and steady development of their bilateral cooperative partnership based on mutual respect and mutual benefit.

4. World Bank president resigns

World Bank President Robert Zoellick said on February 15 he is stepping down, raising the possibility that a non-American might be chosen for the first time to head the 187-nation lending organization.

Zoellick, 58, informed the board he will leave June 30 at the end of a five-year term, during which time he led the bank’s response to the global financial crisis. His plans after leaving were unclear.

The board now begins looking for a new president under guidelines directors adopted in 2011 calling for an “open, merit-based* and transparent selection” process.

5. 17 police killed in Russia

Seventeen police and at least seven insurgents were killed in four days of fighting on the border between the Chechnya and Dagestan provinces in Russia’s North Caucasus, police said on Saturday.

The toll among government forces was the biggest in months in the region along Russia’s southern border, where it faces an Islamist insurgency more than a decade after driving separatists from power in a war in Chechnya.

6. German president quits

Germany’s President Christian Wulff, an ally* of Chancellor Angela Merkel, announced his resignation on Friday following a series of scandals that prompted calls for him to step down.

Wulff, 52, denies any wrongdoing.

Merkel canceled a visit to Italy on Friday to deal with the crisis, and said she was sorry that he had quit.

Wulff had been in the job for less than two years.

7. Romanian nightclub blasts

Two explosions injured 17 people at a nightclub in the northern Romanian town of Sighetu Marmatiei, emergency services said on Sunday.

The first explosion ripped through the club in the early hours of Sunday, injuring seven. A second blast at the building several hours later injured another 10 people, said Cornel Babut, spokesman for the local Maramures emergency office.

(SD-Agencies)