IRAN: Nuclear Watchdog Details Pre-2003 Weapons Research

A new report on Iran's nuclear programme provides substantial evidence that Iran carried out extensive research into how to make a nuclear weapon prior to 2003 but is shaky about how much work has continued.

ISRAEL: To Strike Iran or Not, With the US or Not

Preceding the UN atomic watchdog's report on Iran's nuclear quest, a flurry of reports about Israel increasingly tilting towards preventive military action against Iran highlights U.S. military support of Israel, but tests its influence over its ally.

U.S. House Committee Okays Sweeping Sanctions on Iran

Amid growing tensions in the Middle East, including speculation about a possible Israeli attack on Iran, a key U.S. Congressional committee Wednesday approved two bills that would impose sweeping new economic and diplomatic sanctions against Tehran.

U.S.-NORTH KOREA: Persistence Pays Off with “Rogue” Regimes

The United States and North Korea are resuming the joint search for U.S. soldiers still missing from the Korean War, one of the few positive areas of interaction between two countries estranged for more than 60 years.

Finland to Host Conference for WMD-Free Middle East

After much delay, Finland has been chosen to host a 2012 conference to establish a zone free of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in the Middle East. The meeting aims to bring together all Middle Eastern countries, some of which share a long history of disagreement, such as Iran and Israel.

U.S. Hawks Behind Iraq War Rally for Strikes Against Iran

Key neo-conservatives and other right-wing hawks who championed the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq are calling for military strikes against Iran in retaliation for its purported murder-for-hire plot against the Saudi ambassador here.

U.S. and South Korea: A Rosy Relationship, With Thorns

The United States and South Korea maintain a close military alliance. Congress just passed a free trade agreement that will boost economic ties with Seoul. And the leaders of the two countries form a small but very powerful mutual admiration society, which The New York Times has termed a "presidential man-crush".

U.S.: Alleged Iranian Assassination Plot Suspicious, Experts Say

U.S. Justice Department charges that elements of Iran's government were behind a foiled plot on the life of Saudi Arabia's U.S. ambassador have boggled the minds of many Americans knowledgeable about both Iran and terrorism.

Iranians Charged in Alleged Plot to Kill Saudi Envoy

In a move certain to escalate tensions on a number of fronts, the U.S. Justice Department Tuesday charged a dual Iranian- American national and an alleged member of the Islamic Republic's special operations unit of conspiring to assassinate the Saudi ambassador here.

GERMANY: Anti-Nuclear Exhibit Calls for Culture of Peace

The question which is safer - the heavily armed world we live in now, or a world in which all peoples' basic needs are met - is one core issue of an antinuclear exhibition that has reached Germany after touring more than 220 cities in 28 countries.

Pressure Builds on Iran at Nuclear Watchdog Agency

As Iran continues a slow march toward potential nuclear weapons capability, diplomatic action to contain the programme is likely to shift to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), whose director general, Yukiya Amano, has taken a harder line than his predecessor about alleged military research by Iran's nuclear scientists.

Anti-Nuclear Struggle Has Large Fallout

The anti-nuclear struggle in India did not gain the same national prominence as the hunger strike waged by Anna Hazare against rampant corruption among India’s top politicians. Yet a landmark it surely was in the history of India’s nuclear programme.

JAPAN: New Radiation Limits Demanded for Children

The threat of radioactive contamination faced particularly by children after the Mar. 11 nuclear disaster in Japan has touched the heart of the Japanese public, and become a major political and social issue.

U.N. Meetings Push for Nuclear Safeguards and Test Bans

History is strewn with proof of the destructive capabilities of nuclear weapons and power, yet science is also replete with evidence that nuclear power has many advantages.

Iranian President Offers Nukes Compromise to U.S.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday that Iran would be willing to halt production of enriched uranium that is close to weapons grade if the United States sells Iran fuel for a reactor that produces medical isotopes.

U.S.: Iraq Intelligence Failures Cast Shadow Over Iran Assessment

As the George W. Bush administration built the case for war with Iraq in the early 2000s, press accounts picked up bits of leaked intelligence that described a weapons of mass destruction threat from then president Saddam Hussein. But once the U.S. military entered Iraq, they found nothing.

NGOs Political Outcasts at High-Level U.N. Meetings

A former U.N. secretary-general was once quoted as having described non-governmental organisations (NGOs) as the world's "third superpower".

ARGENTINA: Against the Current in Nuclear Energy

While the tendency in the industrialised world in the wake of the Mar. 11 nuclear meltdown in Japan is to abandon plans for further nuclear energy development, in Argentina the capacity of existing plants is being strengthened, and new reactors are being built.

Post-9/11 Rebuffs Set U.S.-Iran Relations on Downward Spiral

Of all the mistakes and missed opportunities that have characterised U.S. foreign policy since Sep. 11, 2001, few may have been as consequential as the failure to improve relations with Iran.

Politics Clouds Efforts to Ban Nuclear Testing

On Aug. 29, 1949, the Soviet Union conducted the first of 456 nuclear tests in Semipalatinsk in Eastern Kazakhstan, at the site where it ultimately held over two-thirds of all Soviet nuclear tests without warning inhabitants of the region of the impact of exposure to these tests.

JAPAN: Fukushima Blows Lid Off Exploited Labour

The Fukushima disaster has thrown up the first opportunity in decades to bring justice to thousands of unskilled workers who risk radioactive contamination to keep Japan’s nuclear power plants running.