Reuters: U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said on Thursday he expects new sanctions on Iran by May as Tehran began lobbying the U.N. Security Council to oppose new steps against the Islamic Republic over its atomic plans.

AP: Two of three American hikers jailed in Iran for nearly nine months are in poor health and told Swiss diplomats — their first outside visitors since October — that they were considering a hunger strike, their mothers said late Thursday.

Reuters: Iran's Revolutionary Guards successfully deployed a new speed boat capable of destroying enemy ships in war games that began on Thursday in a waterway crucial for global oil supplies, Iranian media reported.

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.