DUBAI (AP) — Hand-selected voters went to the polls on Saturday to pick members of an government advisory panel in this oil-rich Gulf country’s first-ever elections. About 60 per cent of the 1,677 citizens chosen to vote in the capital

TEHRAN (Reuters) — Iran said on Saturday turnout was high in elections for local councils and a powerful clerical body, with some initial reports suggesting allies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad might not have won resounding backing.

NAJAF — Najaf, home to the golden domed shrine of the Imam Ali, is Iraq’s holiest Shiite city and has long lived off a constant flow of pilgrims. Now, with Iraq engulfed in a vicious sectarian war

BEIRUT — Lebanese opposition protesters led by Shiite group Hizbollah are digging in for the winter and vowing not to quit their central Beirut encampment until the Western-backed government falls.

MANAMA (AP) — Bahrain’s main Shiite opposition party boycotted the king’s inauguration of parliament Friday, protesting what it called the “marginalisation” of the country’s Shiite majority.

MOGADISHU (AP) — A Somali lawmaker bypassed the government and signed an agreement Saturday to end hostilities with the country’s powerful Islamic Courts, a symbolic gesture that is unlikely to have any real effect.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Friday she would ask the US Congress for tens of millions of dollars to strengthen the security forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Visiting Pakistani Foreign Minister Mian Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri met with chairman of Iran-Pakistan parliamentary friendship group Ali Aghayee here on Thursday.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Pakistani Foreign Minister Mian Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri stressed Iran’s right to access and use peaceful nuclear technology, and further reiterated that Tehran’s nuclear issue should be resolved through peaceful means.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Tehran’s Interim Friday Prayers leader Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said here on Friday that massive participation of the Iranians in elections proved their loyalty to Islam, the Supreme Leader and the Islamic Republic.