Middle Orient

TEHRAN (FNA)- Republican presidential candidate John McCain touts his foreign policy expertise at every turn, but he has given Democrats ammunition against his experience by wrongly saying Iran trains Al-Qaeda members.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said Thursday that Iran will approach the world through both wisdom and resistance in the new (Iranian) year.

TEHRAN (FNA)- An earthquake measuring 4.1 degrees on the Richter scale jolted south of Shahreza city, 80 kilometers south of Isfahan on Wednesday.

TEHRAN (FNA)- The state-run Iranian Petroleum Engineering and Development Company (IPEDC) and the National Iranian Drilling Company (NIDC) have signed a contract for drilling 12 wells in the massive Kish gas field.

KUWAIT (Reuters) – Kuwait’s ruler dissolved parliament and set an election for May 17 on Wednesday after a political crisis that delayed economic reforms forced the oil exporting state’s government to resign.

PARIS (Reuters) – Six French men and one Algerian went on trial in Paris on Wednesday accused of involvement in a network smuggling Islamist fighters to Iraq.

RIYADH (Reuters) – A group of Saudi clerics has come out in support of a colleague who issued a fatwa saying two writers deserve to die if they did not retract views that he said made them apostates.

GAZA (Reuters) – Hamas voiced willingness on Wednesday to talk to Fatah as part of a Yemeni reconciliation initiative but said the secular faction must drop its demand the Islamist group first give up control of the Gaza Strip.

KUWAIT (Reuters) – Kuwait’s ruler has dissolved parliament days after the government resigned, Al Jazeera television reported on Wednesday.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq’s presidential council paved the way for provincial elections on Wednesday when it signed a law seen by Washington as crucial to helping reconcile the nation’s factions.