NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Iran announced it will continue enriching high grade uranium while adding a nuclear power plant in 2014 and rebuffed calls to allow U.N. inspectors to visit the suspected home of the country's nuclear weapons research.

Iran will not compromise on the West's demand to stop enriching Uranium to 20 percent, said Fereydoon Abbasi Davani head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization.

The U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency has found evidence of uranium enriched up to levels closer to the threshold needed for developing nuclear warheads at an underground Iranian facility.

The talks between the permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany (P5+1) ended in Baghdad after two days of tough negotiations surrounding Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program, which Iran had threatened to walk out of following the P5+1's refusal to scale back economic sanctions.

Iran rejected a proposal to curb uranium enrichment during the second day of nuclear talks with Western powers in Baghdad Thursday.

Among other options being considered by senior officials in the UK government's National Security Council is the deployment of the Royal Navy in the Middle East.

The talks between representatives of the U.S., Russia, France, Britain, Germany, China and Iran are aimed at diffusing rising tension in the region, with Iran seeking a reprieve from crippling sanctions imposed on its energy and banking sectors.

A statement from North Korea on Tuesday declared that Pyongyang would 'expand and bolster' its nuclear deterrent program in response to Western hostilities, but denied that it had been engaging in nuclear tests.

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.