IRAN
The martyr state myth
Matthew Duss, Foreign Policy — August 24, 2011
The “martyr state” myth is based upon two flawed assumptions. First, that the Islamic Republic of Iran has been uniquely willing to endure the deaths of its own citizens in order to achieve its policy goals. Second, that the Iranian Shiite regime’s End Times theology actually induces it to trigger a conflagration.

Tehran’s Nuclear Endgame
Michael Rubin, The National Review — August 25, 2011
When considering Iran’s nuclear weapons, however, the character of the regime is less important than the ideology of those who would have custody, command, and control of the nuclear arsenal.

Iran sees fresh hope in nuclear inspections
Kaveh Afrasiabi, Asia Times — August 26, 2011
he United Nations’ nuclear watchdog has had a fresh look at Iran’s facilities and this, together with Tehran’s embrace of a Russian proposal to gradually resolve the nuclear standoff, may set the stage for a new round of multilateral nuclear talks in the next few weeks.

NORTH KOREA
North Korea reiterates stance on six-party talks
CNN — August 26, 2011
North Korea has reiterated its willingness to resume six-party talks without preconditions, Chinese state media reported.  North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il said during a visit to China that the North is ready to resume the talks, the state-run Xinhua news agency of China reported.

Five South Koreans charged with spying for North Korea
Lucy Williamson, BBC — August 26, 2011
Five South Korean men have been charged with spying for North Korea, South Korean prosecutors say.

LIBYA
U.S.: Gadhafi Chemical, Nuclear Material Secure
Kirit Radia, ABC News — August 25, 2011
American officials said today that Moammar Gadhafi’s stock of chemical and nuclear materials are secure, amid fears they could fall into the wrong hands as the longtime leader’s regime falls.

Libyan rebels fight pockets of resistance, continue hunt for Gaddafi
Simon Denyer and Thomas Erdbrink, Washington Post — August 26, 2011
Libyan rebels fought isolated pockets of resistance early Friday as special forces hunted for fugitive leader Moammar Gaddafi after clearing one of his loyalists’ last major strongholds in the capital.

CHINA
Beijing expanding its nuclear stockpile
Bill Gertz, Washington Times — August 25, 2011
China is expanding its nuclear forces with a new multiwarhead mobile missile and keeps its strategic stockpiles in deep underground bunkers, the Pentagon disclosed in its annual report to Congress on the Chinese military.

China issues protest over U.S. report on military
Christopher Bodeen, Associated Press — August 26, 2011
China formally protested over a Pentagon report on the Chinese military Friday, calling it a major distortion that flew in the face of a warming trend in relations between the two nations and their militaries.

IRAN
Netanyahu warned of Iran’s nukes capability in 2009
Ben Birnbaum, The Washington Times –August 25, 2011
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told U.S. lawmakers nearly two years ago that Iran already had the capability to make a nuclear weapon, according to a U.S. diplomatic cable recently released.

European Union imposes new sanctions on Iran, Syria
Ellen Knickmeyer and Ramin Mostaghim, Los Angeles Times — August 24, 2011
It accuses the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard of providing support to Syrian forces seeking to quell the uprising against President Bashar Assad.

Computer firm faces scrutiny over Iran downloads
The Washington Times — August 24, 2011
A Slovakia-based computer-security firm could face a U.S. investigation for sanctions violations after its anti-virus products were downloaded in Iran in an apparent attempt to secure the country’s networks against the cyberworm that attacked Tehran’s nuclear program.

NORTH KOREA
Nortk Korea owes $11 billion of debt to Russia, Storchak says
San Francisco Chronicle — August 24, 2011
North Korea owes Russia $11 billion of debt that dates back to the Soviet period, Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak told reporters at a military base near Ulan-Ude, a Siberian city close to the border with Mongolia.

U.S. and North Korea may discuss recovering remains of Americans
Choe Sang-Hun, New York Times — August 9, 2011
The United States has proposed to meet with North Korea to discuss for the first time in six years bringing home the remains of any American soldiers buried there.

AFGHANISTAN
Daunted Afghans find refuge in former foe Russia
Amie Ferris-Rotman, Reuters — August 22, 2011
Although still haunted by the decade-long war in which 15,000 Soviet troops were killed, Russia has renewed interest in Afghanistan, quietly allowing the local Afghan community to thrive as a gesture of goodwill.

CHINA
Chinese TV programme shows apparent cyber-attack on U.S. website
Tania Branigan, The Guardian — August 25, 2011
China’s state broadcaster has shown footage apparently featuring army-labelled software for attacking US-based websites, security experts say.  Beijing has consistently denied being behind cyber-attacks, insisting that it plays no part in hacking and is itself a victim.

LIBYA
Libyan rebels target Gaddafi’s hometown
BBC News — August 25, 2011
Libyan rebel forces are pushing towards Col Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte, having taken most of Tripoli.

Libya: Dirty Thoughts About Dirty Bombs
Mark Thomson, TIME — August 24, 2011
Today, the world is at the cusp of yet another major development in Libya – the end of the Gaddafi regime.  And nuclear security concerns still linger. As a result of three decades of nuclear research and radioisotope production, Libya’s research center in Tajoura on the outskirts of Tripoli continues to stock large quantities of radioisotopes, radioactive wastes, and low-enriched uranium fuel.

SYRIA
In book, Cheney says he urged Bush to bomb Syria in ’07
Charlie Savage, New York Times — August 24, 2011
Former Vice President Dick Cheney says in a new memoir that he urged President George W. Bush to bomb a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor site in June 2007.

IRAN
Iran shows UN advanced nuke equipment
George Jahn, Forbes — August 24, 2011
Diplomats say Iran has allowed a top U.N. official access to a site where it is developing advanced centrifuges that can be used to make nuclear fuel or to arm warheads.

Iran shows U.N. official all nuclear sites: envoy
Fredrik Dahl, Reuters — August 24, 2011
Iran allowed a senior U.N. nuclear inspector rare access to a facility for developing advanced uranium enrichment machines during a tour of all of the country’s main atomic sites, an Iranian envoy said on Tuesday.

NORTH KOREA
North Korea Is Said to Consider Nuclear Weapons Test Moratorium
Seth Mydans and Choe Sang-Hun, New York Times — August 24, 2011
The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, has agreed to consider a moratorium on nuclear weapons tests and production and to return to stalled six-party talks on the nation’s nuclear program, the Russian presidential press secretary told Russian news media on Wednesday.

North Korea supplied nuclear software to Iran: German report
Madeline Chambers, Reuters — August 24, 2011
North Korea has intensified its cooperation with Iran this year and supplied it with a computer program that could help the Islamic Republic build nuclear weapons, a German newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing western intelligence sources.

CUBA
Cuba takes over rotating chair of global disarmament body
Washington Post — August 23, 2011
Nearly a half-century after the Cuban Missile Crisis, Cuba is head of the 65-nation Conference on Disarmament.  Cuba succeeded North Korea on Tuesday as chair of the world’s main forum against nuclear arms that has been stalemated since it wrote the nuclear test ban treaty in 1996.

LIBYA
Rebels battle Libyan forces near Gadhafi compound
USA Today — August 24, 2011
Intense clashes erupted Wednesday between Libyan rebels and regime loyalists in a neighborhood next to Moammar Gadhafi’s compound that was stormed by opposition forces a day earlier.

Ex-IAEA official warns of Libya “dirty bomb” material
Reuters — August 24, 2011
A research center near Tripoli stocks uranium and other material that could be used to make a nuclear “dirty bomb” and Libya’s rebels will need to secure it, a former senior U.N. inspector said on Wednesday.

SYRIA
Syria Unrest: U.S. and Europe push for UN sanctions
BBC News — August 24, 2011
The US and several European nations have called for the UN to impose sanctions against Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and his ruling circle.

UNITED STATES
Engineers to check Washington Monument after strong earthquake
CNN — August 24, 2011
No major injuries or extensive damage were reported, but the quake prompted evacuations of office buildings, the precautionary closing of monuments in the nation’s capital and affected a nuclear power plant in Virginia.

What the east coast earthquake means for U.S. nuclear plants
Michael D. Lemonick, The Guardian — August 24, 2011
Tuesday’s earthquake on the US east coast shut down two nuclear reactors. Seismic activity in the US is unlikely to cause a meltdown, but it poses serious engineering challenges.

IRAN
Iran shows off new cruise missile
Nasser Karimi, San Francisco Chronicle — August 23, 2011
Iran’s president claimed on Tuesday the country’s military can cripple enemies on their own ground as Tehran put a new Iranian-made cruise missile on display, the latest addition to the nation’s growing arsenal.

Iranian pleads guilty to scientist assassination
Reuters Africa — August 23, 2011
An Iranian man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to the murder of a scientist that prosecutors said was an assassination ordered by Israel to halt Tehran’s race for nuclear technology.

NORTH KOREA
North Korea’s Kim may get nuclear talks offer from Russia trip
Ilya Arkhipov and Lyubov Pronina, Bloomberg — August 22, 2011
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il travelled through Siberia for a meeting with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that may spur talks on the Asian state’s atomic weapons program and advance a natural-gas pipeline deal.

South Korean employees leave resort after North Korean threat
Paula Hancocks, CNN — August 23, 2011
The last South Korean employees have left Mount Kumgang resort in North Korea resort Tuesday morning, as the struggle over the scenic mountain resort continues.

SYRIA
China criticizes foreign pressure on Syria
Reuters — August 23m 2011
China’s foreign ministry on Tuesday decried foreign pressure on Syria following calls from the United States and Europe for President Bashar al-Assad to step down, saying the country’s future should be decided internally.

LIBYA
Fighting Erupts in Tripoli
The Wall Street Journal — August 23, 2011
Fresh fighting has broken out in Tripoli hours after Col. Moammar Gadhafi’s son resurfaced to thwart rebel claims he had been captured and rally supporters.

The Libya Lesson
Los Angeles Times — August 23, 2011
Kadafi may fall, but that doesn’t mean the U.S. should pursue the same strategy in, say, Syria.

TECHNOLOGY
Laser Advances in Nuclear Fuel Stir Terror Fear
William J. Broad, New York Times — August 20, 2011
Scientists have long sought easier ways to make the costly material known as enriched uranium — the fuel of nuclear reactors and bombs, now produced only in giant industrial plants.

AFGHANISTAN
How to prepare Afghanistan for a U.S. withdrawal
John Podesta, Brian Katulis and Caroline Wadhams, Washington Post– August 22, 2011
As the United States begins a security transition in Afghanistan, it has focused the vast majority of its strategy, efforts and resources on building Afghan security forces and weakening insurgents through military pressure.

PAKISTAN
FMCT: Securing Pakistan’s interests
Momin Iftikhar, The Nation– August 22, 2011
The pressure is yet again building on Pakistan to give up its objection to the agenda concerning the deliberations on the Fissile Material Cut-Off Treaty (FMCT) in the Geneva-based Conference on Disarmament (CD).

NORTH KOREA
Biden: N. Korean, Iranian Nuclear Programs Posing Serious Threat
Arirang News–August 22, 2011
US Vice President Joe Biden, who is currently on a three-nation tour of Asia says North Korea and Iran’s nuclear and missile development programs are posing a serious threat to stability in the US and China.

IRAN  
Iran moves some centrifuges to underground site
Associated Press– August 22,2011
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s vice president says his country has moved some of its centrifuge machines used to enrich uranium to an underground site in central Iran.

SYRIA
President Assad ‘not worried’ by unrest in Syria
The Telegraph- August 22, 2011
President Assad appeared on Sunday in a rare television interview – his fourth public appearance since the revolt against his family’s 40-year rule erupted in mid-March.

LIBYA
Tripoli opened to rebels by sleeper cells, NATO
David Morgan, CBS News- August 22, 2011
After six months of grueling deadlock, the rebels’ advance into the capital of Tripoli – up to the doorstep of the compound of regime leader Muammar Qaddafi – was startlingly quick.