US Senate panel votes new Iran constraints

The US Senate Armed Services Committee voted to require Pentagon contractors to certify they are not doing any prohibited business with Iran.

The panel, in its version of a defense spending bill for fiscal 2011, also ordered a semi-annual government report on commercial activity in Iran's oil, gas and petrochemical sectors, "as well as entities that have aided the Iranian government's efforts to filter the use of the Internet, disrupt cell phone communications, monitor online activities, and jam the signals of US and other international broadcasts into Iran," a committee summary of the legislation said. (Reuters)