Middle Orient

An earthquake measuring 5.1 on the Richter scale jolted the areas in the vicinity of the port city of Lengeh in Iran’s southern province of Hormozgan on Thursday.

Great interest has been generated by a painting and handicrafts exhibition jointly sponsored by Iran and Japan now being held in Tokyo.

It is possible that five words have been added to our knowledge of the ancient Persian language by the recent discovery of a stone inscription on Khark Island in the Persian Gulf.

A meeting between Iran’s deputy nuclear negotiator and a top aide of EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana has been postponed.

Iran was cutting its urea imports and would turn into an exporter in 2008, vowed a National Petrochemical Company (NPC) official yesterday.

More than half of Afghanistan is back under Taliban control and the Nato force in the country needs to be doubled in size to cope with the resurgent group, a report by the Senlis Council think-tank says. A study by the group found that the Taliban, enriched by illicit profits …

The Taliban has a permanent presence in most of Afghanistan and the country is in serious danger of falling into the group’s hands, according to a report from an international think tank.

Lebanese Finance Minister Jihad Azour said on Monday that the current government made progress in the past two years but stressed that reforms should continue.

An international forum held in Istanbul ended with the release of a declaration reiterating support for the Arab, Muslim and Christian heritage of the

President George W. Bush issued formal invitations on Tuesday to the Middle East peace conference in Annapolis next week, Palestinian and Israeli officials said. The November 27 conference in