Austria will give 18 million euros ($23.6 million) for police training in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country, a top official said.

All the lovely singing fails to save the Vienna State Opera's new production of Mozart's "La Clemenza di Tito."

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog are nearing a framework deal on how to tackle concerns about its atomic activity, diplomats say, a potential bargaining chip for Tehran in next week's negotiations with world powers. Iran says such an agreement is needed before it can consider a request by U.N. inspectors to visit the Parchin military site where they believe explosives tests relevant for developing nuclear weapons may have been carried out. ...

The Dalai Lama arrived in Austria Thursday for a visit that will include a meeting with Chancellor Werner Faymann and is likely to irritate China, already angered by his previous stop in Britain.

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran is installing more centrifuges in an underground plant but does not yet appear to be using them to expand higher-grade uranium enrichment that could take it closer to producing atom bomb material, Western diplomats say. They say Iran's production of uranium refined to a fissile concentration of 20 percent, which it started two years ago, seems to have remained steady in recent months after a major escalation of the work in late 2011 and early this year. ...

VIENNA (Reuters) - The U.N. nuclear watchdog and Iran may be narrowing their differences on how to tackle concerns over Tehran's atomic ambitions, diplomatic sources said on Wednesday, suggesting a previously unexpected agreement was now not ruled out. They spoke a day after the U.N. agency said there was a "good exchange of views" with Iran in a May 14-15 meeting which tested the Islamic state's readiness to address questions about suspected nuclear weapons-relevant research. ...

LONDON/VIENNA (Reuters) - Facing an imminent toughening of sanctions, Iran is hinting at a readiness to give some ground in its long nuclear stand-off with world powers, but any flexibility could split their ranks and lead to protracted uncertainty about how to respond. The stakes are high, for the longer the impasse goes on, the closer Iran will get to the technological threshold of capability to develop atomic bombs, raising the odds of last-ditch Israeli military strikes on its arch-foe and the risk of a new Middle East war a troubled global economy cannot afford. ...