The law would lend political support to any decision to close the strait - a threat that Iran's foreign minister recently played down.

Several militant groups are active in Pakistan's northwestern semi-autonomous tribal regions, including the Pakistan Taliban.

The Japanese rocket is carrying H-2 Transfer Vehicle-3, nicknamed Kounotori with more than five tons of space station hardware.

Bomb squad experts will try again to enter gunman's booby-trapped apartment, hours after late-night vigil for 70 victims of massacre.

Japanese law has set an annual radiation exposure safety threshold of 50 millisieverts for nuclear plant workers during normal operations.

Russia said it would veto the original British draft but joined the 14 other council members July 20 in supporting a revised British text.

The ship had offloaded its cargo of Mi-25 attack helicopters it carried to Syria in the Russian port of Baltiysk in the Kaliningrad region.