WASHINGTON (AFP) —  US Democrats forged ahead Sunday with plans to introduce a resolution in Congress condemning President George W. Bush’s decision to send more troops to Iraq, where the US toll rose sharply.

TEHRAN (AP) — Adamant not to budge under pressure, Iran on Sunday announced new short-range missile tests, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed criticism that new UN Security Council sanctions were hurting the economy.

SUSIYA — The turnout is good. Four coach loads of people have come from all over Israel. There are two from Jerusalem, one from Tel Aviv and one from Herzliya. On a sunny January mid-morning, the maybe 200 people walking across the arid hills in the southern West Bank, with …

MOGADISHU (Reuters) — Kenya has sent about 30 prisoners shackled hand-and-foot on a plane to Somalia after arresting them near the border on suspicion of belonging to an ousted Islamist movement, their representatives said on Sunday.

N’DJAMENA (AFP) — A “quiet war” is under way between Chad and Sudan fuelled by instability in the western Sudanese region of Darfur, a special US envoy said here Saturday.

REVIEW TOPICS: Scotland Yard to not publicise Heathrow cameras’ pics of man they believe poisoned Litvinenko Litvinenko’s film-maker friend fears returning to Russia Finnish politicians sign open letter worried about Russian ex-security officer Trepashkin

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran and Sri Lanka are due to consolidate bilateral ties in the cooperative sector through enhancement of cooperation between the two countries’ private sectors.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian Ambassador to Thailand Mohsen Pak-Ayeen said in Bangkok on Saturday that sanctions imposed on Iran by a UN Security Council resolution will bear no fruit.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- An informed source in Iraq’s northern city of Erbil said that Iran’s Ambassador to Iraq will leave Baghdad for Erbil Saturday afternoon to pursue the case with the Iranian diplomats kidnapped by the US forces during a raid on the Iranian consulate general in Erbil.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) aids to Iran have not been discontinued, an informed source said, adding that the IAEA Board of Governors will decide about the issue only after the Agency’s Director General, Mohammad ElBaradei, presents its report.