TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran needs to import 5-6 million tons of wheat in the 2008-09 year but none of it will be bought directly from the United States, an Agriculture Ministry official said.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Israel has reportedly sought US support for a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities last spring.

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Somali authorities have given Russia’s navy the go-ahead to use force against pirates holding a Ukrainian ship hijacked with 33 tanks on board, a maritime official said on Wednesday.

BELYAYEVKA, Russia (Reuters) – Part of a school building in a provincial Russian town collapsed on Wednesday, killing five children and injuring four, the latest casualties of Russia’s crumbling infrastructure.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s Supreme Court ordered on Wednesday that Czar Nicholas II be recognized as a victim of Soviet repression, a symbolic victory for monarchists who said it would help draw a line under Russia’s blood-stained past.

NABAKHTEVI, Georgia (Reuters) – EU monitors entered a Russian-controlled buffer zone around Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia for the first time Wednesday in what they said was a smooth start to their peacekeeping operation.

ODZISI, Georgia (Reuters) – Riding in a rickety truck laden with furniture, Zina Zakarashvili gave European Union ceasefire monitors an early glimpse on Wednesday of the human face of the conflict between Russia and Georgia.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia is considering blasting a railway line through the Caucasus mountains to link up with South Ossetia, the breakaway region of Georgia over which Moscow and Tbilisi fought a war in August.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Eyed with suspicion by the state but credited with dealing al Qaeda a heavy blow, Iraq’s largely Sunni Arab neighborhood guards cautiously welcomed their transfer from U.S. to government control on Wednesday.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – The number of civilians killed in Iraq last month more than halved to 359 compared to a year ago, Iraqi government figures showed, and the number of U.S. troops killed in action also fell dramatically.