DUBAI (AFP) — Osama Ben Laden’s right-hand man Ayman Zawahiri on Tuesday mocked US President George W. Bush’s plan to send extra troops to Iraq, saying he should send his entire army to be annihilated.

BEIRUT — Lebanon’s power struggle has resurrected an old rivalry between Christian leaders whose followers clashed on Tuesday during some of the worst unrest since a 1975-1990 civil war.

DUBAI (AP) — A second US aircraft carrier strike group now steaming towards the Middle East is Washington’s way of warning Iran to back down in its attempts to dominate the region, a top US diplomat said here Tuesday.

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TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- The committee for revising Iran’s relations with the International Atomic Energy Agency has decided to deny granting entry permits to 38 IAEA inspectors, a senior MP said here on Monday.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said here on Monday that Tehran has forwarded letters of similar contents to the 14 permanent and non-permanent UN Security Council member states to protest at a recent resolution passed by the UNSC against its nuclear activities.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mualem strongly rejected the alleged secret talks between Damascus and Tel Aviv, stressing that his country will never attend behind-the-scene negotiations with any other state.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Following their second round of talks, Iranian and Belarusian defense ministers here on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in the field of defense.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Ground forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) began missile war games in Garmsar region, 100 kilometers east of Tehran on Sunday.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in a meeting with Syrian Minister of Telecommunications and Technology Amir Nasir Salim here on Monday stressed that the policies of the hegemonic system for the Middle-East region have all been wrong and ended up in failure.