TEHRAN (FNA) – Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar here on Monday held talks with his Azeri counterpart Safar Abiyev over expansion of defense cooperation.

TEHRAN (FNA) – The Iranian economy minister stated that the value of foreign investment in the country has reached $10.7 billion in the first nine months of the current Iranian year to March 2008.

TEHRAN (FNA) – In a meeting with a journalist from Japan’s Tokyo Shimbun daily, Iran’s vice-president in charge of tourism has invited Japanese tourists to visit Iran.

TEHRAN (FNA) – The international community must increase its diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview aired Monday.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Iran has begun importing 1 million cubic meters of natural gas per day from Azerbaijan, in an apparent move to help compensate for shortages caused by a cut in Turkmen deliveries.

TEHRAN (FNA) – An Iraqi delegation arrived in Iran on Monday to discuss the Algiers agreement which defines their common border.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Iran has started pumping oil from its biggest onshore oilfield of Azadegan in the southwest of the country, a project that was originally to be developed with a Japanese partner.

Europe’s major powers and the United States said on Monday they recognized Kosovo’s new independence, as Serbs reacted with anger and some states warned that its secession from Serbia set a dangerous precedent.

Iraq’s government and international community must give more funding and support to resettle Iraqi refugees displaced by sectarian bloodletting, the United Nation’s top official for refugees said Monday.

In a Feb. 14 story about Jordan imposing visa restrictions on Iraqi refugees, The Associated Press erroneously quoted U.N High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres as calling on countries hosting Iraqi refugees to increase the opportunities for refugees to settle there and saying 70,000 Iraqi refugees want to resettle.