President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Wednesday that the country is more than ever in need of the culture of martyrdom, self-sacrifice and appreciation of martyrs, war veterans and the disabled.

Minister of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics Brigadier General Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar conferred on Wednesday in Yerevan with Armenian Prime Minister Serzh Sarkisian on expansion of mutual cooperation between the two countries.

The jailed chief of Turkey’s Kurdish rebels remains a powerful symbol for fighters who revere him with a personality cult. But the guerrilla lieutenants who plot tactics from bases in northern Iraq are coming under increasing scrutiny as Turkey presses Iraq and the United States for their arrest.

The number of Iraqis returning to their country after fleeing abroad is growing, with more than 46,000 people coming home last month, an Iraqi government spokesman said Wednesday.

Good news: Turkey is on its best way to sufficiently fulfill the Copenhagen political criteria which concern the insurance of democratic standards, the compliance of the rule of law, and the implementation of fundamental rights.

Israel’s foreign minister said Tuesday that an upcoming peace conference in the United States offers a crucial opportunity for progress, amid growing optimism that this time — just maybe — momentum for peace is real and sustainable.

Tens of thousands of Turkish troops were poised Tuesday on the border with Iraq awaiting the order to attack Kurdish fighters, and President Abdullah Gul said the country will do “what it believes to be right” to tame the rebels.

Six U.S. troops were killed in Iraq on Monday, making 2007 the deadliest for the American military in the Iraq war.   

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Tuesday that Iranian nation are well-prepared to safeguard their faith and virtues, which are the key to their prosperity. 

The United States Sunday praised the Iraqi government for helping to secure the release of eight Turkish soldiers abducted by Kurdish rebels two weeks ago during a battle that heightened tensions along the Iraq-Turkey border.