TEHRAN (FNA) – Iran has scheduled to hold permanent handicraft exhibitions in four countries in a bid to promote Iranian culture and tourism in the world.

TEHRAN (FNA)-  Iranian Parliament Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel said here on Monday that all Iranians, regardless of their political tastes, believe the country should utilize peaceful nuclear technology as the “symbol of its independence.”

TEHRAN (FNA) – Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said that the Zionist regime’s ballistic missile capability wouldn’t help it in confrontations with the Islamic Republic.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Contractors have submitted proposals for a construction contract covering a 1,800 kilometer long cross-country gas pipeline in Iran.

BETHLEHEM, West Bank – A Palestinian teenager was killed and another was wounded by Israeli troops during a raid into the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Monday, Palestinian medical officials said.

MOSCOW – Russia warned the United States and European Union on Monday that it would take a series of unidentified measures if Serbia’s breakaway province of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence.

MOSCOW – A self-styled tsar, four empresses and scores of other eccentrics have sought to register for Russian presidential elections in March, the country’s elections chief said on Monday.

CAIRO – Egypt said on Monday it wanted the Palestinian Authority of President Mahmoud Abbas to control the border crossing with the Gaza Strip, excluding Hamas Islamists who have run the territory since June.

ISLAMABAD – Gunmen who took up to 250 Pakistani school children hostage on Monday in a northwestern town freed them all and surrendered to tribal elders, a government spokesman said.

BEIRUT – Hezbollah, Lebanon’s most powerful faction, on Monday demanded to know who was behind shooting that killed eight opposition supporters in some of Beirut’s worst street violence since the 1975-90 civil war.