Middle Orient

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran closed its border with Pakistan on Saturday in view of the uncertainty in Pakistan.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran on Saturday renewed support for Iraqi government and nation and said the new proposals it had presented for discussion in the fourth round of its talks with Americans on Iraq fall within the same framework.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran has started construction of its first local nuclear power plant in Darkhowayn, Energy Minister Parivz Fattah said Sunday.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Saturday that Iran welcomes conclusion of a deal with the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council members for free trade.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has stressed the need to forge long-term stable relations with the Persian Gulf countries.

BAGHDAD – Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki flew to London on Saturday for what he said was a routine medical checkup, but an official in his office said it was treatment for exhaustion.

RAMALLAH, West Bank – The top Palestinian security official said on Saturday his government was dismantling militant groups, including those connected to President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction.

RAFAH, Gaza Strip – Hamas Islamists called on Egypt on Saturday to open its shuttered border crossing with the Gaza Strip to let more than 2,000 Palestinians return to their Gaza homes from the annual haj pilgrimage in Mecca.

KARACHI – Benazir Bhutto was shot in the head, a close aide who prepared her body for burial said on Saturday, dismissing as “ludicrous” a government theory that she died after hitting her head on a sunroof during the suicide attack.

CAIRO – Arab foreign ministers will hold an emergency meeting soon to discuss Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations and Israeli settlement policy, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said on Saturday.