US President Barack Obama says the international community is working on a tough new regime of sanctions, after Iran revealed that it was stepping up its uranium enrichment capability.

Barack Obama has said the international community was moving to impose new sanctions on Iran after Tehran started enriching uranium to a higher level.

WASHINGTON/TEHRAN (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama said on Tuesday the international community was moving "fairly quickly" towards imposing broader sanctions on Iran, as the Islamic Republic defiantly expanded its nuclear program.

Even the White House's spokesman is getting in on the act of mocking Sarah Palin for looking to talking points written on her palm during a political speech.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's top general said on Tuesday that differences over U.S. missile defense plans were directed against his country and were holding up an arms treaty with Washington, Russian news agencies reported.

TOKYO (AFP) - Toyota said Tuesday it was recalling hundreds of thousands of hybrid vehicles globally, including the best-selling Prius, plunging it deeper into crisis as lawsuits in the United States piled up.

WASHINGTON/TEHRAN (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Tuesday the international community was "moving along fairly quickly" toward imposing fresh sanctions on Iran, as the Islamic Republic further expanded its nuclear program.

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran announced on Tuesday it has begun further enriching uranium, dismissing warnings of new sanctions from world powers who suspect the Islamic republic's nuclear project is aimed at making a bomb.

TOOR GHAR, Afghanistan (AFP) - US Marines on Tuesday stepped up preparations for a major assault on a key Taliban bastion in southern Afghanistan hailed by officers as the biggest offensive of the eight-year war.

MUMBAI (AFP) - India's flagship software and services exports industry is facing rising protectionist sentiment in key markets, officials of a trade body warned Tuesday.

LASHKAR GAH, Afghanistan (Reuters) - When British trainers administered random drugs tests to 25 Afghan police recruits at a base in southern Helmand province, most of them failed.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Federal government agencies in the U.S. capital region will remain closed for a second day on Tuesday as residents brace for another blizzard while trying to clean up from a weekend storm that paralyzed the area with two feet (65 cm) of snow.

US Marines are preparing for a major assault on a key Taliban bastion in southern Afghanistan hailed by officers as the biggest offensive of the eight-year war.

Tony Abbott has channelled Barack Obama in a bid to energise the coalition, telling his team that "Yes We Can" win the next federal election.

DUBAI (AFP) - Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemen-based group that claimed a botched Christmas Day attack on a US airliner, on Monday called for more American targets to be hit around the world.

Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's number two, Sufyan al-Azdi al-Shahri, has called for attacks against US interests "everywhere", in an audio message.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said on Sunday that she was open to a possible White House run in 2012 but has not made up her mind.

The US space shuttle Endeavour has soared into orbit carrying an observation deck for the International Space Station.