TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that the idols of the modern era are collapsing right now.

TEHRAN (FNA)- President of Burkina Faso Blaise Compaore Wednesday called for official recognition of Iran’s right to pursue peaceful nuclear energy.

TEHRAN (FNA)- The Iranian embassy in Japan is slated to mount an exhibition of Persian and Japanese calligraphy paintings in the capital, Tokyo.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Azerbaijan Republic is sticking to plans to reduce oil exports to the EU and increase shipments to Iran, as the South Caucasus country home to another Russia-influenced frozen conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh seeks to spread the risk.

TANG KHATTA, Pakistan (Reuters) – Pakistani forces have killed up to 1,000 Islamist militants in fighting in the strategically important northwestern region of Bajaur this month, an army commander said on Friday.

HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Taliban insurgents have freed 118 laborers they kidnapped in western Afghanistan last week, Taliban commanders and Afghan officials said on Friday.

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Somali pirates have seized a Ukrainian ship carrying more than 30 tanks to Kenya and Russia said on Friday it was sending a warship to combat piracy in the region.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas pledged on Friday to pursue peace efforts with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s successor but warned of a new cycle of violence if the fragile peace process collapsed.

The President of the former Soviet state Belarus insists this weekend’s elections will be fair and democratic, despite growing scepticism. Advance voting has begun, and the Minsk hardman, President Alexander Lukashenko, who recently fell out of favour in Moscow, must balance the demands of the Kremlin with the promises of …

Russia is to beef up its nuclear arsenal in the next 12 years, including building its own missile shield in space and commissioning more atomic submarines.