TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran’s Experimental and Documentary Film Center (EDFC) managing director lauded Bosnian director Aida Begic for her efforts in making the film “Snow”.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Archeologists excavating Iran’s Sheikhi Abad mound in Kermanshah Province believe the site was home to the earliest human settlers.

TEHRAN (FNA)- The Parseh and Pasargadae Research Foundation plans to restore the structures added to Pasargadae during the different Islamic eras.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi’s Song of Sparrows is slated to be screened at the 2008 Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF).

TEHRAN (FNA)- Tehran has stepped up efforts to secure the release of two Iranian nationals kidnapped in the western Afghan city of Herat.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Commissioning the third Azerbaijan gas pipeline will prevent the outflow of over $7 billion a year, the Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company (IGEDC) managing director said here on Saturday.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Gunmen kidnapped eight Iraqis from their homes on Saturday and held them through the day in volatile Diyala province, where al Qaeda militants continue to roam despite a crackdown by Iraqi security forces, police said.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia has hastened Georgia’s march toward membership in NATO by going to war with it over its breakaway province of South Ossetia, a senior U.S. diplomat said on Saturday.

KIRKUK (Reuters) – A suicide bomber killed at least five people and wounded eight more on Saturday in Iraq’s northern city of Kirkuk, police said.The bomber detonated a suicide vest in a car market in southern Kirkuk, said Major-General Torhan Abdul-Rahman, a senior police official in the city.

So have the Russians left Georgia, or not? People who normally live in the buffer zone Russia has unilaterally set up are dismayed to see armour digging in instead of heading off back into south Osettia.