RIYADH – The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which comprises 57 Muslim countries, said on Sunday it would step up action at the United Nations to stop Israel’s blockade of Palestinians in Gaza.

ANKARA – Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has accused opponents of the Islamic-style headscarf for women of trying to sow division in secular but predominantly Muslim Turkey.

RAFAH, Gaza Strip – Egyptian forces began closing the border with the Gaza Strip on Sunday, stemming the flow of Palestinians across a frontier blown open 11 days ago by Hamas Islamists in defiance of an Israeli-led blockade.

KABUL – Afghan police lifted a brief siege of the house of former ethnic Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum in Kabul on Sunday after he and a group of around 50 armed men beat up a former ally, a police chief said.

Militants have battled security forces in several parts of the northwest in recent weeks and briefly seized a main road tunnel 50 km (30 miles) from Peshawar city in late January.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Iranian Parliament Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel said there resides no major impediment to the resumption of ties between Iran and Egypt, adding that Tehran and Cairo are determined to boost mutual cooperation.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi, senior advisor to the Iranian president, Saturday dismissed reports about a meeting between Iranian and US officials on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.

TEHRAN (FNA) – World has no way out but to accept Iran’s power, Government Spokesman Gholam Hosseini Elham said in the wake of a recent statement by the European parliament.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Presidents of Algeria, Mauritania, Mali, Zimbabwe and Namibia as well as prime minister of Lesotho voiced support for Iran’s right to use nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Iran’s top military commander said his forces will retaliate against American military bases in the Persian Gulf if they are involved in any possible future attack on Iran.