Despite threats of more sanctions, Iran is continuing its nuclear program, though they still insist it is for peaceful purposes only.

The U.N. Security Council approved a new round of sanctions targeting Iran's nuclear program on Wednesday, sending an "unmistakable message" that Tehran must fulfill its obligations under the nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), President Obama said after the vote.

This week the next two-week round of climate change talks is nearing completion in Bonn. The main task of 2,000 delegates from some 150 countries is to work on the text of a new agreement on greenhouse gas emission reductions to replace the Kyoto Protocol.

Wednesday’s deadly attack on a Nato supply convoy near Islamabad was the first such attack near the Pakistani capital.

Leaders of Russia, Turkey and Iran convened at a security summit meeting in Istanbul on Tuesday in a display of regional power that appeared to be calculated to test the United States just days before a scheduled American-backed debate in the United Nations Security Council on imposing tighter sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program.

The U.S. negotiator on the new START arms reduction treaty with Russia voiced optimism on Thursday that the Senate would ratify the pact by late September, before the White House's official year-end target.

"As the UNFCCC climate talks got under way in Bonn, the two working groups began meetings: the ad hoc working group on long-term co-operative action (AWG-LCA) began with responses to the draft text and ad hoc working group on the Kyoto Protocol (AWG-KP) began to discuss emissions commitments by countries covered by the Kyoto Protocol."

De Boer, who briefed journalists Tuesday about his expectations for the upcoming UN climate change negotiations, said that governments needed an open discussion about the future of the Kyoto Protocol.