Middle Orient

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said his country and Yemen have entered a new chapter in relations between the two countries.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran has not issued an ultimatum to Total and Royal Dutch Shell over the development of its giant South Pars gas field, Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said on Friday.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his country and Russia could play a key role in “shaping new international relations” through promoting ties.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Major powers agreed on Friday to make a new offer of incentives to Iran to give up its right of uranium enrichment.

(Reuters) – Following are security developments in Iraq at 1515 GMT on Thursday. BAGHDAD – U.S. forces said they killed 18 fighters in clashes beginning on Wednesday afternoon and running through the night in the Shi’ite district of Sadr City in the capital. Police put the death toll at 18 …

DUBAI (Reuters) – Leaders of Pakistan’s month-old ruling alliance narrowed differences on Thursday over the reinstatement of judges ousted by President Pervez Musharraf to calm fears that the coalition was about to break up.

GAZA (Reuters) – Israeli forces on Thursday killed two Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including a Hamas commander involved in the 2006 capture of an Israeli soldier, local medics and the army said.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel would likely agree to an informal truce with Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip if cross-border rocket attacks and arms smuggling into the territory ended, a senior Israeli official said on Thursday.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas underwent heart tests in a Jordanian hospital on Thursday, a spokesman said, describing his condition as good.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – An explosion near a U.S. patrol in Baghdad killed nine Iraqis and wounded 23 on Thursday, Iraqi police said.