The U.N. atomic watchdog's board passed Friday a resolution of "deep and increasing concern" about Iran's nuclear activities after a damning new report from the Vienna-based body.

But the text, proposed at the International Atomic Energy Agency by the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, Germany and 12 others, stops short of reporting Iran to New York or setting Tehran a deadline to comply.

Switzerland said Friday it has tightened sanctions against Iran, adding 116 names including Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi to a blacklist of key players under financial and travel embargo.

The updated blacklist includes several officials from the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI), and 111 companies, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) said.

Prime Minister Mario Monti, who has won overwhelming support from the Senate, rushed to firm up ambitious proposals to revitalize the economy Friday as Italy's lower house prepared to vote.

The premier is unlikely to meet opposition in the second confidence vote on his new technocrat government after unveiling a series of bold measures to lift Rome out of the eurozone crisis and to win Europe's support.

President Barack Obama on Friday hailed the East Asia Summit as the top forum for tackling the region's seething maritime row with China, setting a course for confrontation with Beijing.

The Chinese government has testily declared the South China Sea dispute off-limits at Saturday's talks, to be attended by Obama, China's Premier Wen Jiabao, and 16 other nations including several with claims over the waterway.

Four Afghan children were killed on Friday when a bomb exploded as they played near their home in the warring country's troubled east, which borders Pakistan, officials said.

The blast in Nangarhar province is the latest reminder of the high death toll suffered by civilians in the current war since the 2001 U.S.-led invasion ousted the Taliban from power.

Philippine police arrested ex-president Gloria Arroyo at her hospital bed on Friday on charges of conspiring with a feared warlord to rig an election, an offence that could lead to life in jail.

The events capped a tumultuous week in Philippine politics that had seen the government block Arroyo, 64, from leaving the country after she arrived at Manila airport wearing a neck brace and saying she needed medical care abroad.

President Barack Obama said Friday he would send Hillary Clinton on the first trip to Myanmar by a U.S. secretary of state for 50 years to see if Washington can "empower" a nascent reform process.

Obama said in Indonesia that he made the decision after speaking directly for the first time with democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and noted "flickers of progress" from the Myanmar government but said that more needed to be done.

A 21-year-old Hispanic man arrested after shots were fired near the White House was charged Thursday with attempting to assassinate President Barack Obama, a justice department official said.

Oscar Ortega-Hernandez was arrested by Pennsylvania state police on Wednesday following last week's shooting incident. Obama and his wife Michelle were in California at the time of the incident, and no one was injured.

World powers Thursday overcame differences at the U.N. atomic watchdog with a resolution of "deep" concern about Iran's nuclear program but set Tehran no deadline, as the IAEA chief proposed a visit.

A resolution lodged at the International Atomic Energy Agency by the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany, the P5+1, "expresses deep and increasing concern" about Iran's activities.

Russia's top military commander warned on Thursday of a growing threat of conflicts along its borders that could even escalate into a nuclear war.

"The possibility of local armed conflicts along nearly the whole border has increased sharply," General Nikolai Makarov said, citing the fact that many of the country's Soviet partners are gravitating towards NATO.