text: Gordon Brown comment comes as Ahmadinejad claims Tehran is already a nuclear power. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Thursday the international community was moving closer to imposing sanctions on Iran because of its nuclear program.
  Iran put 16 opposition supporters detained during anti-government protests last month on trial Saturday on charges of rioting and conspiring against the ruling system, Iran's state media reported.
  The official IRNA news agency and state Press TV said the defendants face charges ranging from plotting against the establishment to violating security regulations. Five of those on trial, including two women, were accused of moharebeh, or defying God, a charge that could carry the death penalty, the semiofficial ISNA news agency reported.
  The new prosecutions, coupled with the execution on Thursday of two men accused of involvement in anti-government groups, could mark an attempt by Iran's hardline leaders to intimidate the opposition ahead of a new round of street demonstrations expected in February
  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Syrian President Bashar Assad that Israel "must be resisted" and finished off "once and for all" if it launches a military operation in the Middle East, Reuters cited an Iranian report as saying on Thursday.
  "If the Zionist regime repeats its mistakes and initiate a military operation, then it must be resisted with full force to put an end to it once and for all," Ahmadinejad reportedly asserted.