KOHAT, Pakistan  – Pakistani Taliban militants released a video tape Sunday of them beheading a Polish geologist whom they said they killed because Pakistan’s government refused to release Taliban prisoners. The Islamist militants said Saturday they had executed the Polish engineer, Piotr Stanczak, who they kidnapped in September, because the …

CAIRO – A Hamas leader on Sunday played down reports that his group wanted to establish a new umbrella body to replace the Palestine Liberation Organization as the sole representative of the Palestinians. Mahmoud al-Zahar told Al Jazeera television that remarks by Hamas’s leader in exile, Khaled Meshaal, that some …

JERUSALEM/GAZA  – An Egyptian proposal to stabilize post-war Gaza calls for an extended truce between Israel and Hamas, a prisoner exchange and the initial opening of at least two of the enclave’s border crossings, diplomats said. Ahead of an Israeli election on Tuesday, negotiations in Cairo have grown increasingly intense …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran’s Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari Sunday announced his forces’ combat readiness for accomplishing a full range of maritime missions. “We are at such a level of readiness that we can accomplish any type of maritime mission and this honor and growth is among the important achievements …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran on Sunday started mass production of a new medication for asthmatic patients called Melocast. Melocast is an anti-inflammatory medicine controlling Leukortiene sensors inside the body. Leukortiene is a cause of different problems in allergies and allergic asthma. Melocast is used for prevention and treatment of chronic asthma, …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran’s peaceful nuclear program is a home-grown technology and achievement made by the country’s own scientists, an Iranian diplomat said. “The Islamic Republic of Iran has become self-sufficient in nuclear technology and this technology has not been imported from any other part of the world,” Iran’s Consul to …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Tehran doubts some western countries’ claims about improvement of Iran-US relations, Rapporteur of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Kazem Jalali said. “Some western countries are unsatisfied with the settlement of problems in Iran- US ties and some of them try to complicate the issue,” Jalali …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran introduced 4 new medicines for M.S and anemia treatment in a ceremony in the presence of Iranian Health Minister Kamran Baqeri Lankarani on Sunday. The medicines include Interferon beta-1a supplied to the market under the trade mark of Resigen and produced by Sinagen firm. Sinagen had already …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Supreme Leader’s Adviser Ali Akbar Velayati, in a meeting with Iraqi National Security Advisor Muwafaq Al Rubaie, congratulated the Iraqi nation and government on the successful holding of the country’s recent provincial council elections. Velayati, who arrived in Baghdad Saturday, reiterated that the massive turnout of Iraqi …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Developments in Gaza have created a wide gap among the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC) member states, an official in the council’s secretariat told FNA on Sunday. “The Palestine issue has divided council’s members into two groups,” Media Affairs Official in PGCC’s secretariat Salim Al Alavi said. Reminding …