A high-level Iranian hard-line cleric today said the religious edict calling for the killing of Salman Rushdie remained in place and can not be revoked.

Iran said today that it was prepared to start “industrial-scale” enrichment of uranium, expanding a key nuclear process that the United Nations has demanded it halt.

IRAN’S foreign ministry said on Sunday that Tehran would not give up its nuclear program, including uranium enrichment, despite international pressure to prove it is not developing atomic weapons.