The release of fifteen British military personnel mitigates one source of tension with Tehran, but questions remain about the chances for nuclear compromise.

The standoff between Britain and Iran may affect other issues in the region, from nuclear negotiations to the security conference on Iraq.

This report from UK development charity Oxfam says that UK foreign policy is at a crossroads, as one prime minister hands over the reins to another. It cautions that as foreign-policy discussions remain dominated by the debacle in Iraq, the danger is that UK foreign policy could lurch to a much more cautious approach, turning away from trying to solve the world’s worst crises, with potentially catastrophic consequences for people in them.

News story from the BBC on the political background to UK government criticism of a report in The Lancet magazine that estimated Iraq deaths since the invasion at 655,000. The BBC says that the British government was advised by its own experts against publicly criticising the report, and that the Ministry of Defence's chief scientific adviser said the survey's methods were "close to best practice" and the study design was "robust".

The British have announced they will draw down their troops just as the United States begins its 'surge.' Their claims to have pacified Iraq's southern region are widely doubted.

The World Health Organization's Department of Public Health and Environment has prepared a basic facts sheet about the radioactive Polonium-210 as a possible health concern.

The United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence has released a White Paper on the future of the UK's nuclear deterrent.

Link to the Stern commission's report on global warming in the UK.

There is widespread speculation about al-Qaeda's role in the foiled plan to down a group of U.S.-bound airliners. Yet given the increasingly decentralized nature of terrorist groups, many experts feel al-Qaeda's role is not likely to have been significant.

After British authorities arrest two dozen people allegedly plotting to down multiple airliners, Britain and the United States are reminded of the fragility of homeland and airline security.

CFR Senior Fellow Steven Simon says the plot uncovered by British authorities to simultaneously down several aircraft over the Atlantic Ocean bears all the hallmarks of al-Qaeda and suggests the group is still a viable threat.

Stephen E. Flynn, CFR senior fellow for National Security Studies, discusses the terrorist threat to aircraft in light of the recent terrorist plot, discovered by British authorities, to down some ten airliners over the Atlantic Ocean.