A mild-mannered 64-year-old Japanese career diplomat, Yukio Amano managed to spark a wide range of emotions in power centers around the globe: warm smiles in Washington, Paris and London, a torrent of vitriol in Tehran, and ruffled feathers in Moscow and Beijing. That’s because, barely a year into his new job as Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Amano turned up the heat on Iran with a report for the first time giving his U.N. body’s imprimatur to the accusation that Iran may have done research work on nuclear weapons.That report has prompted Western powers to ratchet up sanctions, although Russia, China and other skeptics have not followed suit. And as tension rises, Amano could find himself at the center of the storm in 2012. (Source: Time.com)