TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran’s Vice-President for Judicial and Parliamentary Affairs Mohammad Reza Rahimi conferred with Tunisian Foreign Minister Abdelwaheb Abdallah over bilateral ties and mutual cooperation in a meeting in Tunis. During the meeting, the two sides discussed bilateral relations, explored ways to further develop relations and exchanged views over regional …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Etisalat, the United Arab Emirates’ largest telephone company, will be able to earn as much as $1.6 billion in revenue from its Iranian mobile-phone operations in five years, ING Groep NV said. The price of $398 million paid by the company and the local partner “seems too good …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Executive Director of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA) Dulat Bakishev made a working visit to Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Iran from January 8 to 14. The visit aimed at a discussion of the issues of interaction within the CICA, Kazinform …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Switzerland’s newly-appointed ambassador to Tehran, who is believed to be the first female ambassador to Tehran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, said she will observe Iran’s Islamic dress code (Hijab) during her mission in Islamic Republic. Livia Leu Agosti arrived in Iran this week as Berne’s woman in …

TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior Iranian official on Wednesday voiced dismay at launching British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) Persian TV service. “Launching BBC Persian service TV is detrimental to Iranian national security” Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie as said. He warned that Tehran would take “necessary measures” to thwart the plan. …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran’s storage capacity will raise by 25% once construction work of new storage tanks in Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf is complete, a senior Iranian oil official said. Managing Director of the Iranian Oil Terminals Company Mousa Souri said that construction work of the planned 5 million-barrel …

Skopje has officially protested at the European Commission in Brussels over comments by the Greek Culture Minister that Macedonia will soon dissolve and be carved up between a ‘Greater Albania’ and a ‘Greater Bulgaria’. Macedonia’s mission in Brussels condemned the statements by Antonis Samaras as “counterproductive” for bilateral relations, and …

The violence in Kosovo’s Serb-populated north earlier this month was not explicitly political but linked to crime, said the chief of the European Union’s police and justice mission in Kosovo. Most of the120,000 Serbs who live in Kosovo among two million Albanians reject the territory’s declaration of independence from Serbia. …

The 2008 Freedom House report classifies newly-independent Kosovo as a “not free” country, while Albania, Bosnia, Montenegro as well as European Union-candidate Macedonia are only “partly free”. Freedom House is a United States-based international NGO that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom and human rights. Its annual survey …

Serbia said it will import gas from Hungary and Germany until Jan 20, and hopes to raise the amount by 2 million cubic metres to cover its needs until the row between Russia and Ukraine is resolved. The country’s energy ministry said Serbia had sufficient crude oil to keep the …