KOHAT, Pakistan – Pakistani troops, backed by helicopter gunships, are battling pro-Taliban militants to recapture a key road tunnel leading to the volatile tribal belt on the Afghan border, the military said on Sunday.

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Egypt has agreed to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s plan to assume control of Gaza’s sole crossing with Egypt, excluding Hamas Islamists who rule the territory, Palestinian officials said on Sunday.

GAZA – The Gaza Strip’s Hamas rulers on Sunday rejected returning control of the territory’s sole border crossing with Egypt to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s government and said it was holding its own talks with Cairo.

TEHRAN (FNA) – An Iranian lawmaker Sunday warned Tehran and Riyadh that enemies of Islam are seeking to take benefit from the two states’ differences, and called on Iran and Saudi Arabia not to allow any third party to undermine relations between the two Muslim nations.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Undersecretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Javad Vaeedi said that his country has so far produced 300 tons of UF6 gas in Isfahan nuclear facility, in central Iran.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki lauded Washington’s planned troop drawdown in Iraq, but urged the US to expedite handing over full control of all affairs, including security, to the Baghdad government.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez applauds Tehran for its broad-scale cooperation with the Latin American states.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili says peace in the occupied territories can only be achieved through democratic means.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Iran is hoping that the UN Security Council will not adopt a new resolution on sanctions against the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program, the foreign minister said on Saturday.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Iran Air, the national airline of the Islamic Republic of Iran, has purchased 9 new airplanes during the current Iranian calendar year (started March 21, 2007), Managing Director Saeed Hesami said here on Thursday.