Middle Orient

TEHRAN (Reuters) – A Japanese student kidnapped by bandits in Iran is healthy and has spoken to his family in the past few days, an Iranian official said on Sunday.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Kurdish officials insisted on Sunday that there had been no Turkish military incursion into northern Iraq, describing as baseless Ankara’s claims that significant losses had been inflicted on Kurdish rebels.

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran hanged three convicted drug smugglers in the central city of Qom on Sunday, Iranian media said, in the latest public execution in the Islamic state.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Syria’s acting deputy foreign minister stressed that his country would not allow anyone to impair Tehran-Damascus consolidated and cordial relations.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- An earthquake measuring 3.8 on the Richter scale jolted the district of Basmanj in the vicinity of Tabriz in Iran’s northwestern province of Eastern Azerbaijan on Sunday.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran stressed that it would not accept any assignment or expectations beyond the law, alluding to the West’s call for a stop of its nuclear enrichment program.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a message to Traian Basescu on Sunday extended his congratulations to the Romanian president, government and nation on the country’s national day.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- A prominent Iranian lawmaker said here on Sunday that an incoming report by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana on Iran’s nuclear case will influence Tehran’s cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator and secretary of the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Saeed Jalili is scheduled to pay a visit to Moscow on Monday.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is due to leave for Doha, Qatar on Monday to attend the summit of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC).