TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that it was Iran’s duty to be by the side of Iraq. Ahmadinejad met here with visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Saturday evening. “Our Islamic and humanitarian duty requires us to be incessantly by the side of Iraqi people,” he said. …

KABUL (AFP) – The deputy head of the NATO-led force that has more than 50,000 soldiers in Afghanistan helping to fight extremist insurgents has said security did not deteriorate last year as much as portrayed. A few “spectacular attacks” by the insurgents in 2008 had fed perceptions that security was …

Three months from a deadline for the completion of Macedonia’s new presidential residence, President Branko Crvenkovski’s cabinet is accusing the government of deliberate delays to the works. The president, who previously led the opposition Social Democrats, has in recent months clashed publicly with the current government led by the centre-right …

CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian police detained 20 members of the Muslim Brotherhood and deployed in force in the capital on Friday, ahead of demonstrations the Islamist group called to protest Israel’s offensive in Gaza. Hundreds of riot police and agents were deployed around key mosques in Cairo before the protest, …

LONDON (Reuters) – Britain has formally handed over responsibility for the running of Basra airport to Iraqi authorities, the Ministry of Defence said on Friday, a move that paves the way for Britain to withdraw from Iraq. The airport, on the outskirts of Iraq’s second largest city in the south …

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A suicide bomber struck a lunch gathering of Sunni Arab tribal leaders on Friday in a town south of Baghdad, killing at least 23 people and wounding 42 others, security spokesman Major-General Qassim Moussawi said. The U.S. military said its initial reports said 21 were killed and …

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – India’s defense minister said on Friday Pakistan was still failing to crack down on militants blamed for the Mumbai attacks, and that New Delhi had not deployed troops despite tension with its neighbor. India has been mobilizing support across the world to press Pakistan to crack …

MOSCOW/KIEV (Reuters) – Russian gas kept flowing to European Union states on Friday, a day after Moscow cut off flows to Ukraine in a contract dispute, but importers across the continent were watching for signs their supplies were faltering. The European Union’s Czech presidency said it considered the row between …

JAMRUD, Pakistan (Reuters) – Trucks rumbled through Pakistan’s Khyber Pass on Friday, resuming the transport of supplies to Western forces in Afghanistan three days after authorities suspended shipments to clear out militants. Pakistani Taliban militants in the Khyber region have been trying for months to block vital supplies bound for …

GAZA (Reuters) – They boarded buses in the pre-dawn murk on Friday, lucky foreign passport holders allowed by Israel to escape from seven days of Israeli bombardment in the Gaza Strip. “The situation is very bad. We are afraid for our children,” said Ilona Hamdiya, a woman from Moldova married …