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February 24, 2012 | | Oscar Bait In the past month, Clooney has gone from a sure bet for Best Actor to losing to Jean Dujardin. Richard Rushfield explains how. Plus, join Rushfield and a team of NewsBeasties in a chat about the Academy Awards’ winners and losers on Sunday at 7:30 p.m. EST. WORRISOME In a confidential report released Friday, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog says Iran has rapidly expanded its production of higher-grade enriched uranium in recent months. While the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) expressed concerns about the country’s ability to easily and quickly build nuclear warfare, Iran dismissed inspectors’ concerns as unfounded. The IAEA report also said Iran failed to explain why it’s missing a large quantity of uranium metal, which diplomats say could be used in experiments to arm a nuclear warhead. After talks with leaders in Tehran, the agency added that Iran had refused to clear up questions regarding its nuclear program. AFGHANISTAN At least 12 more people were killed on Friday in Afghanistan as the the outrage over the burning of Qurans by American troops continues. Protesters gathered in Kabul on Friday for the fourth day, with hundreds marching to the palace of President Hamid Karzai. The rallies turned violent Thursday, leaving at least eight people dead, including two U.S. soldiers. President Obama apologized to the Afghan people in a letter Thursday, but crowds of Afghans are unconvinced, as protests spread across the country. AID Following U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s warning that Assad would “pay a heavy cost” if he continued to block aid, a mission to evacuate wounded people in the besieged city of Homs is at last underway. The International Committee of the Red Cross confirmed that the rescue mission began on Friday evening. Working with volunteers from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, the ICRC staff members said they had negotiated evacuations of women and children with both government and rebel forces in the district of Baba Amr, a rebel stronghold in Homs. Though seven people have been taken to local hospitals, four Western journalists—two wounded and two who were killed in Homs—have not yet been evacuated. POTUS It’s apparently not inaccurate to call President Obama “divisive,” whether or not the blame lies with him. According to a new Gallup poll, he almost perfectly splits participants down the middle, with 51 percent saying his political views are “too liberal.” That’s a bigger percentage than those who believe either of the main GOP presidential candidates is “too conservative”—38 percent for Rick Santorum and 33 percent for Mitt Romney. This, Gallup says, could be because Obama is more familiar to Americans than either Santorum or Romney, and Republicans overwhelmingly believe Obama is too liberal (89 percent), while Democrats aren’t as certain about Santorum (50 percent) and Romney (55 percent). Despite this, 47 percent of the people still agree with Obama’s views. | | 
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