TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran indicated Saturday that it has no plans to meet a key Western demand that it stop enriching uranium, a day after Tehran sent the European Union a response to an international offer of incentives for halting enrichment.

"It was not something that made us jump up and down for joy," said one European official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information was confidential. "We are in a holding mode until we get a chance to look at it more closely."

White House press secretary Dana Perino told reporters traveling with President Bush en route to a G-8 summit in Japan that the U.S. administration was still evaluating Iran's response.

"We're going out to consult with our allies about what Iran's response means," Perino said. "We'll just have to see how this is received by others before we make a formal response."

BERLIN -- A visitor decapitated a wax figure of Adolf Hitler just minutes after the Berlin branch of Madame Tussauds opened its doors for the first time Saturday.

The 41-year old Berliner, the second visitor on the opening day of the museum, jumped over a rope meant to distance visitors from the sculpture and ripped the head off the likeness of the Nazi leader, police spokesman Bernhard Schodrowski said. A museum employee was injured slightly in the incident

Police arrested the man, who apparently was making a protest, on suspicion of causing bodily injury and damage to property. After the incident, the museum remained open but the beheaded Hitler sculpture was removed.

In recent weeks, controversy had erupted over whether to exhibit the Hitler sculpture at the museum, only 200 yards from the Brandenburg Gate in the center of historic Berlin.

Mayor Klaus Wowereit had urged the museum to consider carefully whether to include the dictator's likeness and, if they did, to be careful how they presented it. Stephan Kramer, head of Germany's Jewish central council, said that if the exhibit was done in the proper manner, it could provide an opportunity to demystify a man responsible for the death of 6 million Jews.

BAGHDAD -- Iraq's prime minister said Saturday that the government has defeated terrorism in the country, a sign of growing confidence after recent crackdowns against Sunni extremists and Shiite militias.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki launched the crackdowns to extend the authority of the government over areas in Baghdad and elsewhere that have largely been under the control of armed groups since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

"They were intending to besiege Baghdad and control it," al-Maliki said. "But thanks to the will of the tribes, security forces, army and all Iraqis, we defeated them."

He was speaking at ceremonies marking the fifth anniversary of the 2003 assassination of Ayatollah Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, a leading opponent of Saddam Hussein who was killed in a truck bombing in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf after returning from exile in Iran.

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- A new book examining Nelson Mandela's life was launched Saturday with a feast that included everything from the spaghetti casserole he was brought in jail to the soured milk he longed for while living underground.

After all, what he ate, where he ate it and those who prepared it serve as the basis for "Hunger for Freedom: The Story of Food in the Life of Nelson Mandela."

Although Mandela was absent Saturday, many of those who first prepared the dishes, including former wife Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, were on hand for the banquet organized by his daughter Zindzi. The event was part of the national celebrations for Mandela's 90th birthday later this month.

Readers curious about the fare can use "Hunger for Freedom" as a cookbook -- complete with instructions involving an ax and a pig's head for one stew. Few cook books, though, come with such extensive personal stories.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Gunmen in a dangerous part of southern Afghanistan assassinated an Afghan lawmaker, while a roadside bomb militants were planting detonated prematurely, killing 10 Taliban, officials said Saturday.

The gunmen killed parliament member and former military commander Habibullah Jan after he visited an Afghan army compound in the Zhari district of Kandahar late Friday, said Kandahar provincial council member Bismillih Afghanmul.

Zhari is a volatile part of Kandahar contested heavily by militants and Canadian forces over the last two years.

Taliban fighters have frequently targeted Afghan officials, but Jan's death was the first of a parliamentarian in months.

In neighboring Helmand province, militants planting a roadside bomb detonated the device prematurely, killing 10 Taliban, said police chief Mohammad Hussein Andiwal.

The fact one bomb killed so many men appears to reflect the increased size of explosives Taliban fighters have been using in recent months. The bigger bombs -- long used in Iraq but a fairly new phenomenon in Afghanistan -- are shredding through heavily armored U.S. and NATO vehicles and killing multiple soldiers in one attack.

The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program -- a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium -- reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.

The removal of 550 metric tons of "yellowcake" -- the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment -- was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.

What's now left is the final and complicated push to clean up the remaining radioactive debris at the former Tuwaitha nuclear complex about 12 miles south of Baghdad -- using teams that include Iraqi experts recently trained in the Chernobyl fallout zone in Ukraine.

"Everyone is very happy to have this safely out of Iraq," said a senior U.S. official who outlined the nearly three-month operation to The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

While yellowcake alone is not considered potent enough for a so-called "dirty bomb" -- a conventional explosive that disperses radioactive material -- it could stir widespread panic if incorporated in a blast. Yellowcake also can be enriched for use in reactors and, at higher levels, nuclear weapons using sophisticated equipment.

The Iraqi government sold the yellowcake to a Canadian uranium producer, Cameco Corp., in a transaction the official described as worth "tens of millions of dollars." A Cameco spokesman, Lyle Krahn, declined to discuss the price, but said the yellowcake will be processed at facilities in Ontario for use in energy-producing reactors.