Talks open with Iran. Saturn bites the dust. Earthquake in Sumatra and tsunami in Samoa. Our weekly news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

President Obama addresses the United Nations — and Iran looms large. We’ll hear perspectives on the nuclear threat and Ahmadinejad from top Iran watchers around the world.

Iran after the crackdown. Show trial, torture, internal power struggles, and much more. We’ll read the signals from Tehran.

Iran, nuclear weapons, and the Middle East. Is it never going to happen? Or is the US ready to accept, and put up what Hillary Clinton calls a “defense umbrella”?

Iranian crackdown. Health care politics in high gear. And the South Carolina governor’s Argentine affair. Our weekly news roundtable unpacks the headlines.

We’ll look at the crisis in Iran and the big waves it’s creating, from the Middle East to the White House situation room.

Protests rock Iran. New regs for Wall Street. And new gay rights for federal employees. Our news roundtable goes behind the headlines.

Iran votes in a charged election. We turn to Tehran to examine the aftermath.

We’ll talk with Washington Post national security columnist David Ignatius about Tehran and Washington and his new spy thriller, “The Increment.”

Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, imprisoned in Iran, and, her parents say, on hunger strike. We take up her case and the intrigue around it.

The author of “Lipstick Jihad” talks about her new book, “Honeymoon in Tehran,” and the struggle of young Iranians under Ahmadinejad.

In Iraq, more purple-dyed fingers as Iraqis vote in provincial elections. In Washington, the White House and Pentagon weigh plans to end the war. We’ll look at what’s next.

Admiral William Fallon, head of U.S. Central Command until last year, gives us his read on threats, and opportunities, now in the Middle East and beyond.

Missiles and sabers rattling in the Middle East: Iranian. Israeli. American. We ask where it’s headed, and where Washington really stands on the possibility of war with Iran

When America’s spy agencies issued a National Intelligence Estimate two weeks ago stating that Iran shuttered its nuclear weapons program in 2003, it was a blockbuster like few can recall.
The sigh of relief in Washington and around the world was audible. Only recently, President Bush had said a nuclear Iran might ignite “World War III.”
But [...]

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s trip to New York has turned into a doozy. The city where Fidel Castro called JFK “ignorant,” Yasser Arafat packed a pistol on his hip, and Nikita Khrushchev banged the UN podium with his shoe, has gone after Ahmadinejad with a vengeance.
“Bearded blowhard” said the New York Post. “Petty, cruel dictator” [...]