UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — New UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday acknowledged that he faced daunting challenges in many crises worldwide, from the Middle East to North Korea, and put troubled Darfur at the top of his list of priorities.

WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States said Wednesday it raised concerns with Iraq over the timing and procedures for Saddam Hussein’s execution before he was hanged, but insisted the former dictator got justice.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, stressing his country’s nuclear power, said that Iran will soon start nuclear fuel production at an industrial level irrespective of the strong opposition shown by the US president and other world powers.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran’s Expediency Council Chairman Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani stressed that public participation and national consensus by all Lebanese groups can defuse the plots hatched by some local and foreign agents.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Larijani, heading a high-ranking delegation, is scheduled to leave Tehran for Beijing on Thursday January 4 to convey a message from President Ahmadinejad to his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that the western countries should take a lesson from the grave consequences of Saddam’s imposed war on Iran and his fate.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Due to the growingly cold weather sweeping entire Iran and the subsequent increase in local consumption, gas exports to Turkey came to a halt, Oil Minister Seyed Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh said here on Wednesday.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Defense Minister Brigadier General Mostafa Mohammad Najjar stressed that Iran will not give in to the pressures exerted by the world powers.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stressed in Abadan on Tuesday that his country may not give up even an iota of its nuclear rights.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- First Vice President Parviz Davoudi in a meeting with the outgoing Lebanese Ambassador to Tehran Adnan Mansour here on Tuesday stressed Iran’s support for any plan contributing to the establishment of stability, tranquility and unity among the Lebanese groups.