The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2007 was awarded to Doris Lessing, an English writer of Iranian origin.

Iran’s first Vice-President Parviz Davoudi extended his congratulations to Moudibo Sidibe and the Malian government and nation on his appointment as the country’s prime minister.

Iran’s caretaker Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari here Thursday assigned Ali Kordan as his acting deputy.

Secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council Mohsen Rezayee proposed that Muslim countries establish a union under the title of Arab Asia in order to achieve regional convergence.

Japan said Thursday it was working with Tehran to free a 23-year-old Japanese university student kidnapped by suspected bandits as he traveled alone in southeastern Iran.

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said the country’s political establishment should be open to criticism.

Total SA Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie, in an interview with Le Monde newspaper, has affirmed that his company will continue to work in Iran and Myanmar despite pressure coming from government and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).

China Nonferrous Metal Industry’s Foreign Engineering and Construction Company will co-build an alumina plant in Iran with annual capacity of 200,000 tons, it said in a company filing on Thursday.

Despite chummy embraces and warm words, the leaders of Russia and France could not agree on one of the diplomatic world’s most pressing questions, whether or not Iran’s nuclear program would remain peaceful.

Egyptian parliament speaker described talks as the proper means of confrontation with the West, adding that the world countries should resort to negotiations to resolve their problems and to prevent US President George W. Bush from becoming another Neron.