Diplomats: UN nuclear agency chooses veteran Japanese diplomat as its new director general

October 1st, 2009 US, Iran meet directly at nuclear talks in GenevaGENTHOD, Switzerland — A senior U.S. official has met Iran's top atomic negotiator for face-to-face talks — the first such encounter in years of big-power attempts to persuade Tehran to freeze a program that could create nuclear weapons.

September 25th, 2009 VIENNA - Iran has told the International Atomic Energy Agency it is building a second, previously unknown, uranium enrichment plant, the IAEA confirmed in Vienna Friday. Iran admitted to the site after finding out that Western intelligence agencies knew about the project, a diplomat briefed on intelligence findings said.

September 14th, 2009 VIENNA - Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano was Monday formally approved as next head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), paving the way for his succession to Mohamed ElBaradei from December. At the IAEA General Conference, Vienna member states unanimously supported Amano, who in June had narrowly won the majority at the agency's governing board after a protracted election process.

September 14th, 2009 VIENNA - The International Atomic Energy Agency's next head Yukiya Amano Monday stressed that the IAEA must balance its dual role in nuclear non-proliferation and nuclear energy. "Merely being a 'nuclear watchdog' does not suffice," the Japanese diplomat said at the annual IAEA general conference shortly after he was appointed to succeed Mohamed ElBaradei from December.

August 12th, 2009 ISLAMABAD - The US embassy here has denied reports that one of its diplomats had been declared persona-non-grata after an apparent scuffle with the police in the northwestern city of Peshawar. Gerald M. Feierstein, the charge de Affairs at the US mission here, told Online news agency that the facts about the incident, in which the diplomat allegedly pointed a gun at the police and which occurred in Peshawar's diplomatic enclave had been distorted.

July 3rd, 2009 VIENNA - Members of the International Atomic Energy Agency unanimously designated Japan's Yukiyo Amano as the next IAEA chief Friday, ending a rift between developing and industrialised countries over his nomination. With the official confirmation of his election Thursday, the Japanese diplomat is now set to assume his post in December, succeeding Mohamed ElBaradei, who retires as director general after 12 years in office.

July 2nd, 2009 VIENNA - Japanese diplomat Yukiya Amano was chosen as the next leader of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Thursday, diplomats said. Japan's current ambassador to the UN in Vienna is set to become Director General when Mohamed ElBaradei retires after 12 years in office at the end of November.

June 9th, 2009 VIENNA - The governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) gathered Tuesday in Vienna to narrow down the list of five candidates to succeed Mohamed ElBaradei as director general of the nuclear watchdog. In the informal straw poll, the choice was between Japanese diplomat Yukiyo Amano, Nuclear Energy Agency chief Luis Echavarri of Spain, South African diplomat Abdul Minty, Slovenian constitutional court judge Ernest Petric and Belgian nuclear industry executive Jean-Pol Poncelet.

June 9th, 2009 Diplomats: Japanese wins test vote for IAEA headVIENNA — Diplomats say Japan's candidate has won an informal test vote meant to thin out the field of candidates to become head of the U.N. nuclear agency.

June 9th, 2009 Diplomats: Japanese favored in vote to lead IAEAVIENNA — A veteran Japanese diplomat emerged Tuesday as the favorite to succeed Mohamed ElBaradei as head of the U.N nuclear agency, after most agency board member nations backed him against four other candidates in an informal poll. Yukiya Amano received 20 votes from the International Atomic Energy Agency's 35-nation board, diplomats inside the closed meeting said.

June 1st, 2009 Official: IAEA to vote for new director July 9VIENNA — An official says the board of the U.N. nuclear monitoring agency will vote for a new director general July 9.

April 15th, 2009 VIENNA - The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) stopped monitoring North Korea's nuclear facilities Wednesday, a diplomat in Vienna said one day after the country announced it would kick out the IAEA inspectors. IAEA inspectors have removed all seals that were in place to verify that North Korea's nuclear programme remains turned off, said the diplomat who did not want to be identified.

March 4th, 2009 VIENNA - The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Tuesday approved additional nuclear inspection measures for India, which the country has to ratify before it can receive imports for its growing nuclear energy sector. Diplomats said in Vienna that although the 35-country IAEA governing board had approved the additional measures, they fell short of Additional Protocols that are in place for other countries.

February 15th, 2009 VIENNA - In the race to succeed Mohamed ElBaradei at the helm of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Japanese ambassador Yukiya Amano has secured a clear lead over South African diplomat Abdul Samad Minty, according to diplomats in Vienna. Both contenders indicated in interviews with DPA that if elected, they planned to look beyond the Iran nuclear issue and focus on the effects of the expected global rise in nuclear power use.

January 2nd, 2009 VIENNA - Japan and South Africa have submitted candidates for succeeding Mohamed ElBaradei at the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the Vienna-based organisation confirmed Friday in a statement. As ElBaradei's third and last term ends at the end of November 2009, Yukiya Amano of Japan and Abdul Samad Minty of South Africa, who represent their countries at the IAEA Board of Governors, are now vying for the prestigious post of director general.