TEHRAN (FNA) Iran replaced the director general of Tehran’s international airport, the transport ministry said yesterday, after passengers were left stranded for days amid major disruption caused by snowfalls.

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the most serious peace talks in seven years would begin on Monday and must tackle all of the most sensitive issues including Jerusalem without delay.

TBILISI – Around 35,000 people protested in the Georgian capital on Sunday against a presidential election they say leader Mikhail Saakashvili rigged.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Taliban guerrillas killed 10 policemen on Sunday in a raid in southern Afghanistan, provincial officials said.

The soldiers were killed in separate incidents on Saturday in the Deh Rawod area of southern Afghanistan and two Afghan soldiers also died in the fighting, Defense Chief of Staff Dick Berlijn said in a statement.

ISLAMABAD – Nearly half of Pakistanis believe government agencies or government-allied politicians were involved in opposition leader Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, a poll found, as President Pervez Musharraf again dismissed such suspicion.

ISLAMABAD – Pakistani paramilitary troops have begun escorting trucks carrying wheat to stop supplies being stolen amid shortages of flour that have inflamed anger against the government before an election, an official said on Sunday.

KABUL – Male tailors in an Afghan province have been barred from measuring female clients for fittings following a new local ruling that resembles the restrictions the ultra-conservative Taliban imposed on the country when in power.

TEHRAN (FNA) Head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization Gholam Reza Aghazadeh here Sunday said that Tehran’s nuclear issue is in final stages and would soon be resolved.

TEHRAN (FNA) Political Advisor to Iraq’s most influential Shiite politician Sunday dismissed reports by certain media about an impending collective resignation by Iraqi president, prime minister and foreign minister, and described such rumors as ridiculous.