WASHINGTON, April 3 (UPI) -- The Islamic Republic of Iran produces several short-range rockets domestically, including the Shahab-1 and the Shahab-2. They are spin-offs respectively of the Soviet-built Scud-B and Scud-C. It also produces a 1,300 kilometer-range -- 780 miles -- single-stage liquid-fueled ballistic missile Shahab-3 that is a spin-off of North Korea's relatively reliable No-dong intermediate-range ballistic missile.

WASHINGTON, March 30 (UPI) -- The Obama administration may need to decide -- and sooner rather than later -- whether to negotiate with, sanction or attack Iran. The Bush administration's efforts to restrict the Iranian nuclear program have failed because of Russia's and China's resistance and Europe's half-hearted commitment. Soon, Washington will have to decide its next move -- be it to accept a nuclear Iran, to try more strenuous deterrence measures or to take out its sprawling nuclear infrastructure.

WASHINGTON, March 20 (UPI) -- On March 1, 2009, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, said Iran has stockpiled enough fissile material to build a nuclear bomb. This is the first such definitive commentary from a senor Pentagon official.

WASHINGTON, March 6 (UPI) -- Global warming doesn't just mean there will be new patterns of mass migration, wars and border lawlessness in the 21st century. For the great climate change isn't affecting just the warmest parts of the world; it's also affecting areas that used to be the coldest.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- North Korea says its planned satellite launch is for civilian purposes only. That claim is an obvious one. As Mandy Rice-Davies replied when told that Lord Astor, a member of the British House of Lords, denied sleeping with her, "He would, wouldn't he?"

WASHINGTON, Feb. 19 (UPI) -- A sinister Kremlin agenda may be involved in the intrigue around the closure of Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan. The Kremlin is obsessed with the U.S. missile defense deployment in Poland and the Czech Republic. Sources in Moscow tell UPI that the Kremlin may use the Manas closure and an offer of cooperation in supply of the Afghanistan deployment as a bargaining chip in its negotiations with the United States on the future of missile defense in Europe.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- Despite Moscow's assurances of support and cooperation in efforts to defeat the Taliban, Russia appears to be working hard to undermine NATO supply lines to the troops in Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Wanted: a large airport in Central Asia, preferably a former Soviet air base. With the clock ticking for the United States to close Manas Air Base in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, the Pentagon is scrambling to find an alternative.

WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- The path to the new strategic weapons agreement between the United States and Russia, to replace the START I treaty that expires in December of this year, is going to be thorny.