NUCLEAR WEAPONS

The measure grants President Barack Obama the power to impose sanctions against any country or company that enters into a joint venture or offers technology to assist Iran's uranium or oil industries.

Iran is getting a visit from the United Nations' nuclear agency on Sunday, a surprise development as Iran prepares for scheduled talks with Western powers next week.

Iran is good at playing this chess game.

Iran is threatening to seek legal action against Google for failing to use the term 'Persian Gulf' on its maps. The issue over name labels actually elicits strong nationalistic sentiments in the country.

Israeli leaders Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defense minister Ehud Barak have long taken a hawkish stance against Iran.

China has been nudging North Korea to shelve the plans for a third nuclear test, though it remains unclear how North may react to the pressure, sources aware of the secretive discussions between the two nations have said.

North Korea has resumed construction on an experimental light water reactor, a move that could extend its capacity to produce more material for nuclear weapons, Web site 38North reported Thursday.

While the Obama administration rejected to several section's of the House's proposed NDAA bill, a controversial indefinite detention provision for terrorism suspects was not among them.

The Obama administration is trying to get Iranian exile group the People's Mujahedin of Iran taken off of the State Department's list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations, according to a Monday report in the Wall Street Journal.

Iran has executed a man accused of being an Israeli spy, who was found guilty of killing an alleged Iranian nuclear physicist in 2010, Iranian state media reported Tuesday.

On Monday, South Korean President Lee Myung-bak visited Myanmar to meet with top officials there. His decision to visit with Thein Sein signifies Myanmar's growing diplomatic importance in the region.

International Atomic Energy Agency chief inspector Hermann Nackaerts pressed Tehran to allow access to people, documents, information and sites, before two days of preliminary talks with Iran's envoy, Ali Asghar Soltanieh in Vienna began on Monday.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao called on northeast Asia's powers to cooperate more in the face of global economic headwinds, as China, Japan and South Korea agreed at a summit on Sunday to soon launch negotiations on a three-way free trade pact.

The missile features a range of 290 kilometers (180 miles), which would place western India within target.

The IAEA has posted no comment yet on the reported death.

Mitt Romney's former presidential rival Rick Santorum officially endorsed the likely Republican nominee late Monday night after weeks of dodging questions about his support.

In an unexpected development, Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu Tuesday called off early general elections hours after announcing his decision to hold polls on Sept. 4, almost a year earlier than it was originally scheduled. Israeli President Shimon Peres' office has confirmed the cancellation of the elections.

The IAEA has already demanded access to Iran?s atomic sites as long ago as November when it released a report detailing its suspicions that the Iranians were planning to develop nuclear bombs.

A recent investigation concluded more than 1,500 boxes of top secret or confidential-level documents have been misplaced as of March 2011.

Data from consultants JBC Energy showed Iran's output fell by 150,000 barrels per day over a two-month period, hitting a 20-year-low of 3.2 million barrels in April.

Gemba also called on Israel and Palestinians to resume direct peace talks which have been on hold since September 2010