TEHRAN (FNA)- Former secretary of state Henry Kissinger said the US should negotiate directly with Iran over its nuclear program and other bilateral issues, and further criticized Washington’s policy for a regime change in Iran.

KUT, Iraq (Reuters) – Iraqi police arrested dozens of members of Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia on Saturday, hours after two policemen were killed in gunbattles in the southern city of Kut, police said.

TIRANA (Reuters) – About 160 people, including several Americans, were killed or injured on Saturday by a series of large explosions at an Albanian army base on the outskirts of the capital Tirana, government officials said.

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday condemned a bid by state prosecutors to shut down his ruling AK Party as an attack on democracy and political stability and vowed to resist it.

The arrests came after police raids in several districts of Istanbul and the seizure of bomb-making equipment and documents, the agency said.

RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s most revered cleric said in a rare fatwa this week that two writers should be tried for apostasy for their “heretical articles” and put to death if they do not repent.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A Russian newspaper said on Saturday security forces foiled an attempt by a sniper to kill President Vladimir Putin near the Kremlin this month. Itar-Tass news agency cited a security source denying the report.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) – NATO said on Saturday it was nearing a deal to use Russian land and airspace to supply its security forces in Afghanistan, but Western diplomats denied any trade-off with Moscow to keep Ukraine and Georgia out of NATO.

KHOST, Afghanistan (Reuters) – A suicide car bomb attack on a convoy of NATO-led forces in southeastern Afghanistan on Saturday killed two Afghan civilians, an official said.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran’s top arbitration body, the Expediency Council, here on Saturday reviewed its annual performance during a last meeting in the current Iranian year.