Four U.N. human rights monitors on Wednesday called on Iran to stay the looming execution of two activists from the Islamic republic's Arab minority, saying their trial was fundamentally flawed.

"First and foremost, the Iranian authorities must stop the executions and the accused should be permitted a new, fair trial," the quartet of rights experts said in a joint statement.

Iran has agreed to address some of the many long-held allegations that it conducted research into making nuclear weapons before 2003 and possibly since, the U.N. atomic watchdog said Wednesday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said that Iran, which denies ever having sought nuclear weapons, has undertaken to implement five new "practical measures" by August 25.

Iran on Wednesday denied as "completely unfounded" a report that it is recruiting Afghan refugees to fight in Syria to help its ally battle rebels.

Citing Afghans and Western officials, the Wall Street Journal reported last week that Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards was offering Iranian residency and $500 monthly stipends to thousands of Afghans to fight Syrian rebels.

More than a million Iranians out of a population of 77 million drink alcohol, a participant in the country's First World Congress on Alcohol Abuse was quoted Tuesday as saying.

The ISNA news agency attributed the comments to Dr. Reza Afshari, president of the Asia Pacific Association of Medical Toxicology, based on a year-long study that ended in March 2013.

An Israeli defense official said the Jewish state has not been able to stop the build up of Hizbullah's rocket arsenal.

Head of political-military affairs at Defense Ministry, Maj.-Gen Amos Gilad, told a security conference in Tel Aviv that Iran has overseen the construction of Hizbullah's arsenal of 100,000 rockets.

Family members, lawmakers and other supporters of a former U.S. Marine held in Iran called for his release Monday ahead of his 1,000th day in captivity.

Amir Hekmati was arrested in August 2011, put on trial and found guilty of spying for the CIA. He was subsequently sentenced to death, a penalty that was recently overturned and reduced to 10 years.

Dutch police have found three-quarters of a tonne of heroin stashed in a raisin-filled container from Iran, one of their biggest hauls yet, public prosecutors said on Monday.

The container carrying 764 kilos (1,680 pounds) of heroin valued at around 17 million euros ($23 million) was spotted by customs officials in the Rotterdam port a week ago, prosecutors said in a statement.

A senior inspector from the U.N. atomic energy is due on Monday in Iran for talks with officials aimed at tackling "remaining concerns" about Tehran's nuclear program, media reported.

The visit by the International Atomic Energy Agency officials comes after Iran and six world powers ended a fourth round of nuclear talks in Vienna on Friday with "no tangible progress."

Iran's intelligence ministry has arrested three people suspected of being behind a bomb attack on a military parade in 2010, media reports said Sunday.

The explosion in the ethnically Kurdish northwestern town of Mahabad in West Azerbaijan province killed 12 spectators and wounded 81 others.

Iran and world powers were nursing their wounds on Saturday after a bruising round of nuclear talks, but diplomats and experts remain hopeful a historic deal can still be struck by a July 20 deadline.

With three previous rounds already under their belts, the three-day session that ended in a rainy Vienna on Friday night had been billed as the clincher, where the leaders would finally put pen to paper and start drafting the actual text of the deal.