VIENNA (Reuters) – Israel welcomed as a “positive” move a decision by Arab states not to target the Jewish state with a resolution over its assumed nuclear arsenal at a global meeting of the U.N. atomic agency on Friday.

Arab delegations described this as a “goodwill” gesture ahead of talks later this year on efforts to free the world of nuclear weapons and an Egyptian-proposed conference in 2012 on creating a zone without such arms in the Middle East.

VIENNA, Sept 22 (Reuters) – The U.N. nuclear agency endorsed
an action plan on Thursday to help strengthen global nuclear
safety in the wake of Japan’s Fukushima accident six months ago,
despite criticism from some countries that it does not go far
enough.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s 151 member states,
at their annual general conference in Vienna, approved by
consensus the plan prepared by the office of IAEA Director
General Yukiya Amano.

VIENNA (Reuters) – Environmental group Greenpeace calls it a “dying and dangerous” industry and Europe’s biggest engineering conglomerate, Siemens, is exiting the sector altogether.

Japan’s Fukushima nuclear accident six months ago sparked doubts about the future of nuclear power across the globe and especially in Europe, highlighted by Germany’s decision to quit the energy source and Italy’s referendum to ban it for decades.

VIENNA (Reuters) – Environmental group Greenpeace calls it a “dying and dangerous” industry and Europe’s biggest engineering conglomerate, Siemens, is exiting the sector altogether.

Japan’s Fukushima nuclear accident six months ago sparked doubts about the future of nuclear power across the globe and especially in Europe, highlighted by Germany’s decision to quit the energy source and Italy’s referendum to ban it for decades.

VIENNA (Reuters) – Myanmar is in no position to consider developing nuclear arms, a senior diplomat from the military-ruled country told the U.N. atomic agency on Wednesday, rejecting any such suspicions in the West.

Last year, a U.N. report suggested that North Korea might have supplied Myanmar as well as Iran and Syria with banned atomic technology.

VIENNA (Reuters) – Iran’s nuclear energy chief accused British spies on Monday of shadowing him around the world — even to the “back door” of his university office — to gather information ahead of a failed assassination attempt on him last year.

Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani, subject to U.N. sanctions because of what Western officials said was his involvement in suspected atomic arms research, also blamed Israel and the United States for attacks on him and other Iranian scientists.

VIENNA (Reuters) – There is political consensus in Japan to cut the country’s reliance on nuclear power but there needs to be a public debate on how to proceed, a senior Japanese government official told the U.N.’s atomic agency on Monday.

Nuclear Disaster Minister Goshi Hosono was speaking hours after 60,000 demonstrators marched in Tokyo to demand an exit from atomic energy after the Fukushima plant catastrophe.

VIENNA (Reuters) – The United States and Iran traded accusations at a meeting of the U.N. atomic agency on Monday, underlining the deep deadlock between the two adversaries in a long-running dispute over the Islamic state’s nuclear program.

In speeches to the annual member state gathering of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iranian nuclear energy chief Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani and U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu took aim at the policies of their respective countries.

VIENNA (Reuters) – It is one of the West’s biggest nuclear proliferation nightmares — that increasingly isolated Iran and North Korea might covertly trade know-how, material or technology that could be put to developing atomic bombs.

“Such a relationship would be logical and beneficial to both North Korea and Iran,” said Mark Hibbs, an expert of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

VIENNA (Reuters) – It is one of the West’s biggest nuclear proliferation nightmares — that increasingly isolated Iran and North Korea might covertly trade know-how, material or technology that could be put to developing atomic bombs.

“Such a relationship would be logical and beneficial to both North Korea and Iran,” said Mark Hibbs, an expert of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.