TEHRAN (Fars News Agency) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that relations of regional countries have entered a new trend of development, adding that his presence at the recent heads of state summit of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) heralded a new era of regional relations.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency) Iranian Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance Mohammad Hossein Saffar Harandi said culture and cultural relations could serve as the best possible means to expand Iran-Egypt ties.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency) Iran’s Parliament Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel said measures and actions of the western powers are against the teachings and aspirations of the holy Jesus Christ, stressing that western powers stand against the Christ as they are a symbol of war and animosity.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency) Iranian Offshore Oil Company (IOOC) head Monday said if Iran and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) reached an agreement, his country would for the first time export over 540 million cubic feet of gas per day to an Islamic neighboring state.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency) Four former Iranian officials, including one who held a key Oil Ministry position and an ex-customs director, have been jailed for up to five years for taking bribes and embezzlement, the judiciary said on Tuesday.

KANDAHAR AIR FIELD, Afghanistan — The coalition field hospital at this sprawling base is taking in more and more injured children from Afghanistan’s war-ravaged South, Canadian staff say.

KABUL, Afghanistan – Two European diplomats who went to one of Afghanistan’s most volatile regions have been asked to leave the country.

Iraq’s interior minister ordered the dismissal of Baiji’s police chief, after a suicide bomber killed at least 20 people and wounded 80 in the northern Iraqi town on Tuesday, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

A suicide truck bomb killed at least 20 people and wounded 80 in the northern Iraqi city of Baiji on Tuesday, the police and U.S. military said, in the deadliest attack in Iraq for two weeks.

Israel is considering easing criteria for freeing Palestinian prisoners, a move one Israeli official said on Monday could pave the way for the release of Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouthi.