TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran is successfully blocking US efforts to secure a long-term troop presence in Iraq, the American ambassador to Baghdad conceded.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Baku will host a meeting of the Iranian, Azerbaijani and Russian work groups, engaged in the project of the North-South international transport corridor on October 7-8, said spokesman for the Azerbaijan State Railway Company Nadir Azmamedov.

NICOSIA (Reuters) – Foreign activists who planned to sail to Gaza in defiance of an Israeli blockade have delayed their trip to late October, an organizer said on Friday.

PUL-I-CHARKHI, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Afghan army recruit Mohammad Sediq is sitting out his class at a military academy on the outskirts of Kabul because his feet became swollen after he wore ill-fitting military boots without socks.

NAZRAN, Russia (Reuters) – Russia thought it had tamed the Muslim regions on its southern flank when it quelled a rebellion in Chechnya, but trouble is brewing again.

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 Friday.

The Presidents of Venezuela and Russia have met to further tighten military and economic cooperation, in the wake of Moscow’s war with Georgia which soured relations with the US.

NOVO-OGARYOVO, Russia (Reuters) – Russia said on Thursday it was ready to consider helping Venezuela develop a peaceful nuclear energy program, a gesture that will displease Washington as two of its sharpest critics draw closer.

A group of 11 European tourists and eight Egyptian guides kidnapped in Egypt’s desert have been moved to Libya, a Sudanese official has said.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stressed that his country’s differences with the neighboring United Arab Emirates over the three Iranian islands in the Persian Gulf can be resolved through talks, and condemned interference in the issue by some other states.