TEHRAN (FNA) – Iran’s budget for the next fiscal year shows a 20.8 percent increase compared to the current year’s, an Iranian lawmaker said.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Iran’s defense minister said the high quality of domestically-made defense equipment has rendered sanctions against the country ineffective.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Petroleum Ministers of India and Pakistan held discussions in London on a multi-billion-dollar gas pipeline project involving the two countries and Iran, with both sides expressing their keenness to put it on stream.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Iran on Sunday offered to help Egypt deal with growing chaos on its breached border with Gaza, Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Iran began pumping natural gas to Turkey on Sunday after cutting supplies for three weeks.

GAZA – Hamas said on Sunday it received assurances from Egypt that Cairo has not reached an agreement with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s government that would exclude the Islamist group from running Gaza’s border.

DUBAI – An al Qaeda-linked group in Iraq issued an Internet video on Sunday showing what it said were two police officers repenting their past actions and handing over their weapons to insurgents.

BAGHDAD – Iraqi tanks and helicopters are being sent to the northern city of Mosul and troop reinforcements should arrive later on Sunday for a big offensive against al Qaeda militants, Iraqi security officials said.

MOSCOW – Former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov was barred on Sunday from running for president in a March election, a move he said was taken to block any real challenge to Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin’s chosen candidate.

MOSCOW – Former Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov on Sunday denounced a decision to bar him from running in a March 2 election for president, saying it showed that Russia was sliding towards dictatorship.