This weekend's nuclear deal with Iran—the result of combined negotiating efforts between diplomats from Iran, the United States, the UK, Russia, China, France and Germany—is facing strict criticism, both in the U.S. Congress, where it has become a rare source of bipartisan agreement, and in Israel.

After weeks of negotiations between diplomats from Iran, US, the UK, Russia, China, France and Germany, Iran has agreed to temporarily freeze its nuclear program while a larger deal is negotiated.

Talks continued in Geneva today on a new agreement to halt Iran's nuclear program. In the first major setback for the new round of talks, France has questioned whether the deal would do enough to restrict Iran's production of nuclear fuel.

Earlier this week, Mojtaba Ahmadi, a commander at Iran's Cyber War Headquarters, was found shot to death in the woods near Karaj, a town northwest of Tehran. Ahmadi is the sixth prominent member of Iran's scientific community killed since 2007, a tally that includes five nuclear scientists and the head of the country's ballistic missile program.

For the first time since 1979, the leaders of the United States and Iran talked on the phone, President Obama told reporters today. Obama and newly elected Iranian president Hassan Rouhani talked briefly on Friday afternoon.

Iran may be winning over doubters with the diplomatic, moderate tone of its new president Hassan Rouhani—but Israel just struck an epic blow in an even more important war: the war for social media buzz.

A good way to routinely bum yourself out is to set "Google News" as your Internet home page. But last night, something magical happened on that usual grid of gloom: The top stories were good news: Pope Francis and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the elderly men recently chosen to lead their respective communities, had again made headlines for words of kindness and reconciliation.

The week before his first visit to the U.N. General Assembly in New York, new Iranian President Hassan Rouhani – perhaps taking his cue from other prominent world leaders – published an editorial in the Washington Post discussing his country's “two-pronged approach” to developing a “constructive engagement” with the rest of the world.

In his first interview with the Western press, recently elected Iranian President Hassan Rouhani spoke with NBC News' Ann Curry about nuclear weapons, Israel, President Obama, and Iran's desire for peace.

Who’s the worst landlord in New York City? Possibly the guys whose building functions as a massive Iranian money-laundering operation.

A man contacted through a Craigslist-style website and asked to smuggle weapons-grade uranium to Iran was arrested in Kennedy Airport Wednesday, after claiming he had hidden samples in his shoes.

A female politician who was legitimately elected "first alternate member" of the city council in Qazvin, Iran, was denied her right to sit among the other representatives because she was deemed "too sexy" by the conservative election review board.

Hassan Rowhani (alternately Rouhani) won the Iranian presidential election today with a decisive majority, avoiding a runoff. Rowhani, a cleric, ran on a platform of moderation and reform, speaking about freeing political prisoners, working to guarantee civil rights and to restore "dignity to the nation."

Hassan Rowhani, the most moderate Iranian presidential candidate, is leading by a wide margin in early counts of yesterday's vote.

A death toll in the hundreds is expected following a massive earthquake in southeast Iran near the border of Pakistan on Tuesday. Measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale, the quake is the country's largest in decades, and its tremors reportedly caused buildings to sway as far away as New Delhi and Qatar.

News from Iran about a Tehrani scientist who claimed to have invented a "time traveling machine" capable of seeing into people's five-year-plan with 98% accuracy made headlines yesterday in nearly every country besides Iran.

A 6.3 magnitude earthquake in southwest Iran's Bushehr province has already killed 30 people and injured 800. Though the earthquake occurred 60 miles to the south of Iran's only nuclear power station, officials report that the nuclear plant has not been harmed and is working properly.

This could have been bad: According to an excerpt from Deep State: Inside the Government Secrecy Industry by Marc Ambinder and D.B. Grady, a Secret Service agent accidentally discharged his shotgun outside New York's InterContinental Hotel in fall 2006, nearly shooting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the process. The incident took place during the United Nations General Assembly and was described in a brief item in one of President George W. Bush's daily intelligence briefs.

President Obama arrived in Israel today on his first state trip to the country and the first leg of his tour of the Middle East. He is expected to discuss the crisis in Syria and Iran's disputed nuclear program with the leaders of Israel. He also plans to go to the West Bank on Thursday to meet with Palestinian officials, but there are not many expectations for progress towards peace.