Nuclear weapon

12 French nuclear test victims to be compensated

The court in Nantes upheld nine cases against which the defence ministry had lodged an appeal and found in three cases that their claim should proceed.

The claimants served in Algeria and the South Pacific between 1960 and 1996 when France tested its nuclear weapons.

Their lawyer said this marked an important decision but regretted that in the process, seven years had been lost.

France adopted a law in 2010 recognising that its tests were harmful but the compensation criteria were narrowly crafted that practically all claims were thrown out.

Trump, Putin both seek to boost their nuclear capability

The exchange appeared to raise the prospect of a new arms race between the two nuclear superpowers, which between them boast more than 14,000 nuclear warheads, the still deadly legacy of their four-decades long Cold War standoff.

But the comments by Putin, who is presiding over a project to restore Russia's lost global power and influence, and Trump, who will shortly become the US commander-in-chief, did not spell out exactly what each side is proposing or whether a major change of nuclear doctrine is in the offing.

UN nuke agency: Iran's role in nuclear probe meets standards

Such sampling of soil, air or dust from equipment is usually done by the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) own experts. But IAEA chief Yukiya Amano confirmed that Iranians carried out that part of the probe at Parchin, where the agency suspects that explosive triggers for nuclear weapons might have been tested in the past.

Diplomats say Iran insisted on the compromise as a condition for any probe of Parchin.

Britain says Iran too powerful to leave in isolation

Tehran and world powers struck a deal last month on Iran's contested nuclear program, and on Sunday Britain and Iran reopened their respective embassies after a break of several years.

Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, who met Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran on Monday, said the two countries shared common ground despite a "deep legacy of distrust."