TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Managing Director of the National Iranian Oil Company said Tehran would not extend the deadline it has specified for Japan’s Inpex Company for commencing the project for the extension of Azadegan Oil Field.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday that Iran is keen on developing relations with independent European states.

Outgoing Omani Ambassador to Tehran Abdullah bin Salem bin al-Shanfari here Sunday called on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to discuss issues of mutual interest.

GAZA CITY (AP) — Gunbattles erupted Monday night between Fateh and Hamas members in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, killing two people and wounding 14 others a day after a deadly explosion of internal violence paralysed the Gaza Strip.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq’s prime minister on Monday announced a new plan aimed at ending the deepening crisis between Shiite and Sunni parties in his government and uniting them behind the drive to stop sectarian killings that have bloodied the country for months.

BAGHDAD — A 30,000 per cent increase in the murder rate would overwhelm the best equipped detectives, but Lieutenant Colonel Amir of CSI Baghdad refuses to despair.

TEHRAN (AP) — Iran’s president said his country was determined to expand its uranium enrichment programme, announcing a plan to produce more nuclear fuel and calling allegations that Tehran was seeking nuclear weapons

SANAA (AFP) — Four French nationals kidnapped by Yemeni tribesmen two weeks ago have been freed and are well, state-owned news agency Saba said Monday.

RABAT (Reuters) — Morocco’s once secretive socialists have launched a mass membership drive to boost their chances at polls next year in which their message of secular modernity faces a challenge from resurgent Islamists.

TRIPOLI (AP) — A thaw in US-Libyan relations was well under way, Libyan newspapers reported Sunday, after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met her Libyan counterpart on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York.