Middle Orient

TEHRAN (FNA)- The average price of Iran’s heavy crude oil rose by almost $ 38 per barrel year on year, reported the March edition of the OPEC bulletin.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian and French archeologists conduct archeogeophysic research in Pasargad to find the borders of the ancient Iranian capital.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran is planning to list shares in a $90 billion energy holding company on the Dubai International Financial Exchange (DIFX), the Middle East Economic Digest (MEED) magazine reported, citing unidentified Iranian sources.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki is to attend this month’s Arab summit hosted by Syria that is expected to be dominated by the political crisis in Lebanon.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran’s conservatives have won 71 percent of the seats in parliament after legislative polls, according to partial results announced by Interior Minister Mostafa Pour Mohammadi on Saturday.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran on Saturday reaffirmed its rejection of any talks with world powers over the nuclear crisis, saying it would only negotiate with the UN atomic watchdog.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Former secretary of state Henry Kissinger said the US should negotiate directly with Iran over its nuclear program and other bilateral issues, and further criticized Washington’s policy for a regime change in Iran.

KUT, Iraq (Reuters) – Iraqi police arrested dozens of members of Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mehdi Army militia on Saturday, hours after two policemen were killed in gunbattles in the southern city of Kut, police said.

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday condemned a bid by state prosecutors to shut down his ruling AK Party as an attack on democracy and political stability and vowed to resist it.

The arrests came after police raids in several districts of Istanbul and the seizure of bomb-making equipment and documents, the agency said.