AMMAN  – Hamas supremo Khaled Mishaal said efforts to end the bitter feud with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas were deadlocked because of Israeli and US meddling, and insisted his men would stay in control of Gaza.

LEBANESE AUTHORITIES HAVE arrested two Palestinians in connection with a roadside bombing that targeted UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon last month, a security official said Thursday.

ANKARA (AFP) – A Turkish court on Thursday charged an Egyptian with alleged ties to Al Qaeda and a Turkish accomplice with hijacking a plane carrying more than 140 people, the Anatolia news agency said. The court in the southern city of

Iran’s Defense Minister Brigadier General Mostafa Mohammad Najjar Thursday underlined full preparedness of his country’s armed forces, saying that Iranian troops are closely monitoring enemy moves in the region.

Iran’s first Vice-President Parviz Davoudi extended his congratulations to the Uzbek government and nation on the country’s national day.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Mohammad Ali Hosseini said the US has not yet announced the exact date for a meeting between the five Iranian diplomats kidnapped by the US troops in Iraq and their family members.

Iran’s first Vice-President Parviz Davoudi extended his felicitations to the Kyrgyz government and nation on the country’s national day.

An Iranian military official said here on Thursday that the US efforts to label the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist group are aimed at launching a psychological war against the Islamic Republic.

With Libya at the helm, and Iran, Cuba and Pakistan among the 20 nations participating, a United Nations-convened meeting in Geneva next week will begin to lay the groundwork for a global conference on racism in 2009.

Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran has warned German banks that their withdrawal from the country may result in business disadvantages in the future, the bank’s vice governor Mohammad Jafar Mojarrad said.