[JURIST] Shirin Ebadi [BBC profile; Nobel autobiography], the Iranian human rights lawyer and activist who won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize [official website], said Friday that Iran [JURIST news archive] would defend itself against any American attack, insisting at a Paris press conference that "We will defend our country till the last drop of blood." Ebadi, a critic of the Iranian government for years who was jailed for three weeks by the authorities in 2000, nonetheless called on the Iranian government to open up its controversial nuclear program to the international community to prove its intentions are peaceful. AP has more.

Iran announced [BBC report] April 11 that its scientists had successfully enriched uranium to make nuclear fuel, just a few weeks after the UN Security Council [official website] passed [JURIST report] a non-binding resolution [press release] instructing Iran to cease uranium production.