Iran is willing to satisfy the UN and send its uranium abroad for further enrichment, the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, told state television last night.

In 2004, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) revealed that a member state had violated its Safeguards Agreement by carrying out covert uranium conversion and enrichment activities and plutonium experiments for more than two decades. The nature of certain of those enrichment activities, moreover, raised legitimate suspicions of interest in a nuclear weapons programme.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran will "show no mercy" toward opposition protesters seen as threatening national security, a judiciary official said on Tuesday, a day after thousands of students staged anti-government rallies.

President Barack Obama used the 30th anniversary of the Iran hostage crisis to urge Tehran to make concessions over its nuclear program, saying it needs to turn the page on the past and forge a new relationship with the United States.

 Direct talks without preconditions between the United States and Iran are the only solution to the conflict over Tehran's nuclear program, the U.N. nuclear agency's head was quoted as saying on Saturday.

The Iran nuclear standoff has receded somewhat from public view. It does appear that diplomacy will now has chance in resolving this issue. The Geneva talks between Iran and the P5 has brought about some change in the scenario backed up by clear statements by both Russia and China that this was not the time for further sanctions.

The Pentagon is speeding up delivery of a colossal bomb designed to destroy hidden weapons bunkers buried underground and shielded by 10,000 pounds of reinforced concrete.

The first death sentence has been passed against a defendant accused of involvement in the mass protests in Iran against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election, prompting fears of a wave of executions against opposition activists.

Iran and Afghanistan will dominate talks by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton next week on a trip to Britain and Russia that could also spur progress on a new nuclear arms reduction treaty with Moscow.