World Powers

MOSCOW - Iran on Monday offered up a blistering critique of a proposal by six world powers to rein in its nuclear program, marking the latest setback in efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict. In Iran's first detailed analysis of the proposal, the nation's chief negotiator, Saeed Jalili, ticked off a list of objections in a five-hour negotiating session at a Moscow hotel and expounded at length about Tehran's grievances with the West, dating back to at least 1968.

Iran on Monday offered up a blistering critique of a proposal by six world powers to rein in Tehran's nuclear program, marking another setback in efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the dispute. In its first detailed analysis of the proposal, Iranian chief negotiator Saeed Jalili enumerated a lengthy list of objections in a five-hour negotiating session at a Moscow hotel and expounded at length about Iran's grievances with the West dating back to 1968. The meeting, the third this year between Iran and the six powers, “was intense, it was tough,” said Michael Mann, a spokesman for the European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton.

Siegfried Klinsmann was planning a future for his sons when he opened the doors to a three-story bakery in the hilly woodlands west of Stuttgart, Germany, in 1978. "A father's dream is always that one of his sons carries on his business," says Juergen, the second of those four sons, who was 14 at the time. Unfortunately for Siegfried, young Juergen had dreams of his own - and they tended more toward sport than strudel. "I said 'I'm out,'" he remembers. " 'I'm going to go play soccer.' " The two eventually hammered out a compromise.

BAGHDAD — Hopes for quick progress on Iran's disputed nuclear program faded rapidly Wednesday, as diplomats from six world powers and Iran collided bitterly in daylong talks intended to resolve their long-standing differences over an effort many nations fear is aimed at building a nuclear bomb. In their second high-level meeting in as many months, representatives of the two sides offered packages of proposals designed to open a path to what is expected to be a long and difficult negotiation.

My colleague Paul Richter reports a potential breakthrough in negotiations over Iran's nuclear program: “The United States and five other countries have agreed to offer a joint proposal to Iran at a high-level meeting next week in an effort to open a path for negotiations to curtail Tehran's disputed nuclear program and to ease the threat of war. “When  they meet in Baghdad on May 23, the six powers will offer to help Iran fuel a...

WASHINGTON - In what would be a significant concession, Obama administration officials say they could support allowing Iran to maintain a crucial element of its disputed nuclear program if Tehran took other major steps to curb its ability to develop a nuclear bomb. U.S. officials said they might agree to let Iran continue enriching uranium up to 5% purity, which is the upper end of the range for most civilian uses, if its government agrees to the unrestricted inspections, strict oversight and numerous safeguards that the United Nations has long demanded.

ISTANBUL, Turkey - Iran and six world powers took a modest step toward resolving their dispute over Tehran's nuclear program, agreeing to negotiate their differences and to meet again next month in Baghdad. The much-anticipated daylong discussion, however, appeared to leave the two sides far from even an interim agreement on how to overcome the dispute, which has raised fear of a spiraling war in the Middle East. Yet Western officials said Iran's agreement to even talk should be counted as progress, as the Islamic Republic has repeatedly walked away from attempts to force it to negotiate curbs on its nuclear program.

ISTANBUL, Turkey - The stakes will be high when diplomats from six world powers meet with Iranian officials here over the weekend to discuss the Islamic Republic's nuclear program: War or peace, the global economic recovery and a U.S. presidential election may ride on the outcome. Expectations are much lower. It will be enough for the diplomats if there is sufficient common ground with Iran to keep talking. As recently as a week ago, there were doubts that the long-delayed talks would even take place.

The San Gabriel Valley Badminton Club was born eight months ago in a nondescript industrial park off the 57 Freeway in Pomona. If you're looking for fancy bells and whistles — or, for that matter, heat — this isn't your place, with 19 simple badminton courts and a small, no-frills workout room packed into a chilly warehouse about the size of a hockey rink. Yet Tony Gunawan, a former world and Olympic champion who has visited elaborate arenas all over the globe, can't think of anywhere else he'd rather be. Next summer's London Olympics mark what he promises will be the end of a long playing career, and the 36-year-old has a new muse — coaching the U.S. into a badminton power.

With the capture and death of Moammar Kadafi, NATO's aerial assault on Libya essentially ended the same way it began: with warplanes raining down bombs on him in the name of a U.N. mandate to protect civilians from his loyalists, while helping Kadafi's enemies run him to ground. Throughout the seven-month operation, the alliance in essence served as the anti-Kadafi fighters' air force, crippling the strongman's forces and installations with relentless sorties that at times came close to killing him as well.