BBC: Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has arrived in Zimbabwe, despite protests by the MDC party of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai.

AP: Iran's foreign minister is to visit Austria as Tehran focuses on weakening a U.S.-led push for new U.N. sanctions on Tehran.

Wall Street Journal: Forty-one foreign companies had some form of commercial activity in Iran's energy sector over the past five years, despite American laws that could prompt U.S. sanctions against such firms, according to U.S. government auditors.

AFP: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad left Thursday for a two-day visit to Zimbabwe and to UN Security Council member Uganda, with whom he will discuss Iran's nuclear programme, state television reported.

AP: Iran's state television says the country's elite Revolutionary Guard has started large-scale war games in the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

New York Times: Iran’s supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, attacked the United States on Wednesday for making what he called “atomic threats” against his country, while the army announced a large-scale military drill in the Persian Gulf to display its strength.

Reuters: President Barack Obama's administration said on Wednesday that progress toward Middle East peace would help thwart Iran's ambitions by preventing it from "cynically" using the conflict to divert attention from its nuclear program.

AP: The U.S. has ruled out a military strike against Iran's nuclear program any time soon, hoping instead negotiations and United Nations sanctions will prevent the Middle East nation from developing nuclear weapons, a top U.S. defense department official said Wednesday.