TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Visiting Azeri Defense Industry Minister Yavar Jamalov here on Monday paid tribute to the Father of the Islamic Revolution, the late Imam Khomeini.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran and Malaysia are set to form a joint commission for cooperation on women and family affairs, chairman of the Iranian parliament’s Women’s Fraction said.

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Thirteen US troops died in Iraq over the weekend including four killed when a military helicopter made an “emergency landing” in the restive west of the country, the US military said Monday.

UNITED NATIONS — US Ambassador John Bolton has pushed President George W. Bush’s global agenda with a lawyer’s drive during his 16 months at the United Nations — not a diplomat’s finesse which has upset some ambassadors and UN officials.

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli army killed a Palestinian and arrested 17 fighters Monday in raids across the West Bank, despite a decision by the military to scale back such operations in order to bolster a shaky truce with the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

BEIRUT (Reuters) — Lebanon’s army deployed more soldiers in Beirut on Monday after the killing of a pro-Syrian Shiite demonstrator raised fears anti-government protests could turn into sectarian violence.

BAGHDAD (AFP) — The genocide trial of Saddam Hussein heard its penultimate witness Monday in a sign it will soon concentrate on documents allegedly linking former Iraqi authorities to the 1988 massacres of Kurds.

WASHINGTON — After a five-year Republican lock on power, the quagmire in Iraq handed US President George W. Bush a Democrat-controlled Congress in late 2006, which is likely to make his last two years in the White House tough ones.

CAIRO — Mohammad Gad walks barefoot through the muddy tannery, seemingly not bothered by the acrid odours of chemicals and the stink of unprocessed skins.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian Foreign Ministry on Sunday summoned Swiss charge d’affaires in Tehran to reflect the Islamic Republic’s strong protest at the savage behavior of the US police towards an Iranian student of California University.