TEHRAN (FNA)- Pakistan invited Iran to invest in its expanding Housing sector.Speaking to APP on Monday, Pakistani Housing Minister Rehmatullah Kakar said his Iranian counterpart Saeedi Kia had accepted his invitation to visit Pakistan and explore Iranian investment in this important sector of economy.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Lebanese Christian political leader Michel Aoun said on Monday that Iran was helping Lebanon to achieve national unity.

TEHRAN (FNA)- An Iranian maritime official said that the Islamic Republic is leading in the Middle East in terms of observing and promoting maritime standards.

TEHRAN (FNA)- A looming global recession could make OPEC more tolerant of cheaper oil, but the group still needs to cut output by early next year to control swelling stocks and insure against a price collapse.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Consul General Saeed Kharazi called on the Chief Minister of Pakistan’s Punjab province, Mian Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, on Monday.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said Monday that Western states have no choice but to win Iranians’ trust on the country’s nuclear issue.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Unidentified gunmen shot dead a government official in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday and U.S.-led forces killed five militants south of the capital, a senior police official and the U.S. military said.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – In five years of war, Iraq has been hostage to a parade of grim statistics: car bombs, corpses, cholera and refugees fleeing rampant bloodshed.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) – More than 40 Islamist militants and two soldiers have been killed in the latest fighting in Pakistan’s troubled northwest near the Afghan border, paramilitary force officials said on Tuesday.

Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad has issued a decree to set up diplomatic ties with Lebanon and open an embassy.