Iran claimed Sunday it could now use domestically mined uranium to produce nuclear fuel, giving the country complete control over a process the West suspects is geared toward producing weapons.

• December 6, 2010

Hillary Clinton on Friday night renewed an offer of friendship to Iran but said the United States was "committed to defending its Gulf allies from regional threats".

• December 4, 2010

Hoping to defuse the latest round of tensions over a strategically important American air base, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday that the United States would steer part of a lucrative Pentagon jet fuel contract to a newly created Kyrgyz state-owned corporation.

• December 3, 2010

The leaked U.S. diplomatic cables that portray Russia as a virtual mafia state are "total nonsense" of doubtful authenticity, the spokesman of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Thursday.

• December 3, 2010

The Russian Ambassador to Pakistan said that his country had asked Pakistan to sign over Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Addressing a roundtable, Russian Ambassador Andrey Budnik said that Russia had been persuading Pakistan, India and Israel for signing the NPT to make the world free of nuclear weapons.

• December 3, 2010

A continuing tense diplomatic standoff between US and China is a further sign that the Obama administration is exploiting the tensions on the Korean peninsula, inflamed by last week’s exchange of shelling between the two Koreas, to intensify American pressure against China.

• December 3, 2010

Russia announced Wednesday that it had created the world's first international atomic fuel bank as part of a global effort to curb the spread of nuclear arms.

• December 2, 2010

In a surprise victory for President Obama's campaign to secure nuclear material worldwide, the government of Belarus announced Wednesday that it will give up its stock of highly enriched uranium, a critical component of nuclear weapons.

• December 2, 2010