Middle Orient News

ANKARA – Turkey plans to liberalize its media sector, allowing foreigners to own up to 50 percent of broadcasters instead of the current 25 percent, according to a draft law prepared by media watchdog RTUK and obtained by Reuters on Monday.

TEHRAN (FNA) The US president is striving to hide the thick file of his administration’s failures, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Mohammad Ali Hosseini said in the wake of the recent statements made by US President George Bush against Iran.

TEHRAN (FNA) Iran are Morocco are decisive to bolster cooperation in the tourism sector, an Iranian tourism official said here on Monday.

TEHRAN (FNA) Proposed by foreign minister and approved by the president, Asghar Ebrahimi Asl was assigned as the Islamic Republic of Iran’s ambassador to South Africa.

TEHRAN (FNA) Iran and Russia are due to agree on a date for the launch of operation of the Islamic Republic’s first nuclear power plant in the southern port city of Bushehr within the next few weeks, deputy head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said here on Sunday.

TEHRAN (FNA) An earthquake measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale jolted the areas in the vicinity of the town of Shahmirzad in Iran’s northern province of Semnan on Monday.

TEHRAN (FNA) Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki voiced Tehran’s determination to provide answers to the questions posed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about its nuclear program.

TEHRAN (FNA) Oil production from Iran’s Darkhovin field has been doubled to 100,000 barrels per day (bpd), an Iranian official said on Sunday, referring to part of a plan to hike output from OPEC’s second biggest producer.

TEHRAN (FNA) While Turkmenistan’s economic officials insist that the country cut gas to Iran 12 days ago because of a technical fault with the export pipeline, Ashgabat’s political circles blame a failure by Iran to pay for supplies as a second cause of the disruption.

TEHRAN (FNA) Iran on Sunday criticized Washington for using President Bush’s Middle East tour to spread anti-Iranian sentiment in the region.