TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Chairman of Iran’s Expediency Council, Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said that Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria can solve may regional problems, particularly in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine, in case they move in harmony.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Bombers killed 65 people, many of them young women students, at a Baghdad university Tuesday on one of the city’s bloodiest days in weeks.

RAMALLAH —  Both Israeli and Syrian officials yesterday denied reports in the Israeli media that the two countries had reached the outlines of a peace agreement in secret talks over the past two years.

KUWAIT CITY (AFP) — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and eight Arab counterparts called on Iran Tuesday not to meddle in Iraq’s affairs after discussing Washington’s plan to quell sectarian violence in the country, Kuwait’s foreign minister said.

MOGADISHU (AP) — The first African peacekeepers to help the government assert its authority in Somalia are expected by the end of January, the prime minister said Tuesday.

AMMAN — US President George W. Bush’s plan to bring peace to Iraq, already facing resistance in Congress, also has highlighted differences between Washington and Baghdad over how to deal with Syria and Iran.

CAIRO (AP) — Saudi Arabia has asked Arab leaders to convene their annual summit in the kingdom’s capital, reversing an earlier decision not to host it, the Arab League chief said Monday.

BAGHDAD (AFP) — Hundreds of Sunni Arabs paid their respects Tuesday to former aides of Saddam Hussein convicted of crimes against humanity and buried near the former Iraqi leader’s own grave after a gruesome hanging.

MOSCOW (Reuters) — Russia said on Tuesday it had delivered new anti-aircraft missile systems to Iran and would consider further requests by Tehran for defensive weapons.

DUBAI (AP) — The deployment of the USS John C. Stennis to the Middle East will put two US aircraft carriers in the volatile Gulf region for the first time since the 2003 Iraq invasion. Military officials say a second carrier group is meant as a plain warning to Iran.