Middle Orient

TEHRAN (FNA)- Tajik President Emomali Rahmon on Tuesday lauded Iran’s positive role in the development of his country.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Qatar’s Energy Minister Abdullah bin Hamad al-Attiyah warned Wednesday that crude oil prices could reach 300 dollars per barrel or more if the United States were to attack Iran.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian state oil company and Vietnamese oil group Petrovietnam signed a $115 million deal for the exploration of Iran’s southwestern Dana oilfield near Iraq.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works (MMK) has made an offer to Iranian metallurgical company of Esfahan on the purchase of a controlling stake in it, Chairman of the Russian steel company’s Board of Directors Viktor Rasnikov told journalists Thursday.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – It was an incident that aptly summed up the fog of war in Iraq — relatives burying nine women and a child they said were victims of a bomb attack on a bus in which the U.S. military said no one died.

BETHLEHEM, West Bank (Reuters) – Israeli forces killed four Palestinian militants in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, hours after the Gaza Strip’s Hamas rulers demanded a halt to all Israeli “aggression” as a condition for a ceasefire.

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) – A Hamas leader and representatives of the Fatah-dominated PLO plan separate visits to Yemen to discuss Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s initiative to reconcile the rival Palestinian groups.

ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey plans to invest up to $12 billion in its impoverished, mainly Kurdish southeast region as part of efforts to drain support for separatist PKK rebels, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

(Reuters) – Following are security developments in Iraq at 8:30 a.m. EDT on Wednesday. * NEAR KIRKUK – A roadside bomb targeting a local council member near Kirkuk, 250 km (155 miles) north of Baghdad, wounded two of his bodyguards, police said.

AMMAN (Reuters) – Jordanian authorities on Wednesday released Jordanian Sheikh Abu Mohammad al-Maqdisi, a leading al-Qaeda mentor, after several years imprisonment without trial, security sources said.