TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran on Saturday renewed support for Iraqi government and nation and said the new proposals it had presented for discussion in the fourth round of its talks with Americans on Iraq fall within the same framework.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran has started construction of its first local nuclear power plant in Darkhowayn, Energy Minister Parivz Fattah said Sunday.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran’s First Vice President Parviz Davoudi said on Friday that Iran is ready to contribute to the implementation of different economic projects in Djibouti.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Saturday that Iran welcomes conclusion of a deal with the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council members for free trade.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stressed the need to forge long-term stable relations with the Persian Gulf countries.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iraq will send a delegation to neighboring Iran in the coming days to seek slight changes to the agreement that defines the two countries’ borders, Iraq’s deputy foreign minister Labeed Abbawi said on Saturday.

BAGHDAD – Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki flew to London on Saturday for what he said was a routine medical checkup, but an official in his office said it was treatment for exhaustion.

RAMALLAH, West Bank – The top Palestinian security official said on Saturday his government was dismantling militant groups, including those connected to President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction.

RAFAH, Gaza Strip – Hamas Islamists called on Egypt on Saturday to open its shuttered border crossing with the Gaza Strip to let more than 2,000 Palestinians return to their Gaza homes from the annual haj pilgrimage in Mecca.

KARACHI – Benazir Bhutto was shot in the head, a close aide who prepared her body for burial said on Saturday, dismissing as “ludicrous” a government theory that she died after hitting her head on a sunroof during the suicide attack.