217 Members of the Islamic Consultative Assembly gave vote of confidence to the President’s nominee and elected Gholam Hossein Nozari as Oil Minister.

Italy’s ENI will continue to do business in Iran amid US pressure for companies to cut investment in the country, ENI’s chief executive said in an interview published Wednesday.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Mohammad Ali Hosseini said on Tuesday that the visit of IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei to Iran is on the agenda but the exact time would be announced after mutual confirmation.

The total cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is expected to be $1.6 trillion (£770bn) – double the amount President George Bush says it will cost.

The recognition of Abkhazia by Russia would amount to declaration of war against Georgia and “we will accept this challenge,” an influential lawmaker Givi Targamadze, who chairs the parliament’s defense and security committee, said on November 13.

President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday he expected a parliamentary election on December 2 to give him a “moral right” to influence Russian politics after he steps down from his Kremlin post next year.

Sanctions are not the way to resolve the deepening international confrontation over Iran’s nuclear ambitions, China said on Tuesday, while also urging Tehran to be more compromising.

China’s drive to invest in Iran’s biggest undeveloped oilfield in return for gas supplies is being stymied by tough commercial negotiations, not the threat of more sanctions, Chinese oil officials said on Tuesday.

.S. and Iraqi forces killed an estimated 15 al Qaeda gunmen during a fierce battle south of Baghdad after the militants launched a major attack on recently formed neighborhood patrols, the U.S. military said on Tuesday.

Following are security developments in Iraq at 8:00 a.m. EST on Tuesday.* Denotes new or updated item. * HAWIJA – Gunmen killed a policeman and an Iraqi soldier when they opened fire on their car in central Hawija, 70 km (43 miles) southwest of the northern city of Kirkuk, police …