TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's foreign minister has ruled out sending enriched uranium out of the country, rejecting the U.N.'s plan to resolve the crisis.

The U.N. offered a deal last month to Iran to take its enriched uranium out of the country and return it as refined fuel rods to solve the impasse over its nuclear program.

"We will definitely not send our 5.3-percent enriched uranium out of the country," Manochehr Mottaki told the semiofficial ISNA news agency Wednesday.

He offered instead a simultaneous swap of uranium for fuel inside Iran.

(NECN/APTN: Beijing, China) - President Barack Obama took some time away from the diplomatic table on Wednesday to tour The Great Wall of China.

The president could be seen walking alone down an incline atop the wall. He was asked by a media member whether he had enjoyed his tour.

"Yes. I very much enjoyed it," President Obama said.

(NECN/APTN: Beijing, China) - President Barack Obama on Wednesday met with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing.

He was accompanied by other members of the U.S. delegation at the meeting, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, U.S. Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke.

Before the meeting with the premier, Mr. Obama said the U.S. relationship with China is deepening beyond trade and economics to cover climate, security and other matters of international concern.

(NECN: Nairobi, Kenya) - The anti-piracy force of the European Union reports that Somali pirates again attacked the Maersk Alabama, the cargo ship that was attacked last spring and led to a hostage situation involving Captain Richard Phillips.

The E.U. Naval Force said the pirates fired automatic weapons at the ship, but that guards on board returned fire to thwart Tuesday's attack.

In the original attack in April, pirates took Captain Phillips of Underhill, Vermont hostage, holding him at gunpoint for on a lifeboat. The hostage situation lasted five days.

BAGHDAD (AP) - Iraq's Sunni Arab vice president on Wednesday vetoed part of a key election law, throwing national polls slated for January and a planned U.S. troop drawdown into question.

Tariq al-Hashemi announced he is sending part of the law back to parliament to be amended. He wants more seats allocated for Iraqis living abroad, most of whom are Sunni Arabs.

Al-Hashemi said all other provisions in the law are satisfactory, and stressed that only the article related to the number of seats for voters abroad will be open for discussion.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran has sentenced five people to death over the unrest that followed the country's disputed June presidential election, state television reported Tuesday.

At least three others caught up in the turmoil have received death sentences previously.

Iran began a mass trial in August of prominent opposition figures and activists, accusing them of a range of charges from rioting to spying and plotting what authorities have called a "soft revolution" to topple the country's Islamic rulers.

(NECN: Beijing, China) - After meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, President Barack Obama today took a tour of the Forbidden City and did some other sightseeing.

The Forbidden City was the Chinese imperial palace from the Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qing Dynasty. It is located in the middle of Beijing, China, and now houses the Palace Museum. For almost five centuries, it served as the home of the Emperor and his household, as well as the ceremonial and political center of Chinese government.

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - A self-proclaimed pirate and a village elder in Somalia say that pirates holding a Spanish trawler and 36 hostages have been paid $3.3 million, and are freeing the ship and crew.

A Somali villager named Ali Ahmed Salad says 12 armed pirates who have been holding the ship the last six weeks left it shortly after noon Tuesday and joined colleagues near the town of Haradhere.

Ali Gab, a self-proclaimed pirate, says a boat delivered $3.3 million in ransom. Gab says pirates began leaving the ship and he believes it is free.

BERLIN (AP) - German authorities say a 90-year-old former member of the Nazi's SS has been charged with 58 counts of murder for the 1945 killings of Jewish forced laborers in Austria.

The Duisburg state court said Tuesday that state prosecutors had charged the suspect with the killings of the Jewish laborers near Deutsch-Schuetzen on March 30, 1945.

The suspect lives today in Duisburg but was not identified by the court.

The court says it has two weeks to decide whether the evidence presented supports the charges enough to bring the case to trial.

(NECN/APTV) - US President Barack Obama took time from a busy schedule during his first, high-profile visit to China to tour the country's Forbidden City in Beijing on Tuesday.

After a morning of meetings with Chinese President Hu Jintao, Obama took a tour of the nearby Palace museum - ancient home of many Chinese Emperors.

Later in the day Obama was scheduled to attend a lavish state dinner in his honor.