French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on Tuesday launched a fresh bid to break a political impasse in Lebanon that is threatening to derail the election of a president by a November 23 deadline.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has sent messages to Syrian President Bashar Assad that he is interested in reopening peace talks and suggested Israel would return territory it captured 40 years ago, Israeli officials said Tuesday.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad here Wednesday said that his country has started uranium enrichment at an industrial scale since the beginning of the current Iranian year, (started March 21).