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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei overrules Iran's foreign minister and rejects direct talks with the U.S. over his country's controversial nuclear program.

U.S. officials wonder whether North Korea's successful rocket launch this week helped Iran — another country whose nuclear program concerns the U.S. The two countries have worked together in missile design, but it's unclear who's helping whom.

Although North Korea claims the launch was a scientific endeavor to put a satellite in orbit, the U.S. and its allies were quick to call it a long-range missile test. That may conjure up visions of nuclear missiles, but strategy experts say such technology is still out of reach for Pyongyang.

The New York Times and NBC °µºÚ±¬ÁÏ are reporting that the U.S. and Iran have agreed to talks on Iran's nuclear program.

When the Soviet Union collapsed, its vast nuclear stockpile did not appear secure and the U.S. stepped in to help. Thousands of nuclear weapons have been dismantled with U.S. aid over the past two decades. But now Moscow says it's ready to pull the plug on the program.

A little-known, but longtime nuclear standoff ended this week when U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta lifted a 26-year-old ban that kept New Zealand naval ships from docking at U.S. bases. The ban stems from New Zealand's nuclear-free policy that forbids U.S. nuclear ships into its ports.

The Israeli prime minister, speaking on NBC's Meet the Press, said Iran's nuclear program was "in the last 20 yards." He also denied he was taking sides in the U.S. presidential election.

An alleged war plan leaked to a blogger says the attack is designed to take out Iran's Internet, telephones, radio and television transmissions and electrical grid. Although a cyberattack of that scale makes sense in theory, it's unclear whether Israel has such a capacity.

The Republican presidential candidate says America's national security priority should be preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, a point he made directly during a weekend stop in Israel. But analysts say Mitt Romney's policy descriptions sound much like those of President Obama.

Iran's supreme leader has repeatedly cited his own fatwa, or religious edict, that nuclear weapons are a sin and that Iran doesn't want them. Many in the West are skeptical, but U.S. officials are calling on Iran to live up to the fatwa.