JERUSALEM – Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected Israel’s idea of an interim peace agreement at a Sunday summit, a Palestinian negotiator said, insisting on an all-or-nothing approach that virtually ruled out an accord by a January target date.

The US military has handed Anbar province, once the centre of Iraq’s Sunni insurgency, to Iraqi control at a ceremony in the provincial capital.

Israeli soldiers in the occupied West Bank have shot and wounded a mentally disabled Palestinian man during a raid on his house, medical officials say.

It has been described as a diplomatic slap on the wrist.The European Union has decided to freeze talks with Moscow on closer ties until Russian troops withdraw from Georgia. The extraordinary summit in Brussels was the first to be called since the outbreak of the war in Iraq in 2003.

Russia’s Ambassador to the EU has warned that the bloc will lose out by suspending long-delayed talks on a framework for new relations as retaliation for the military campaign in Georgia.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran is shipping the last load of heavy crude oil that was stored in tankers in the Persian Gulf to the Suez Canal for delivery to buyers, an oil ministry official said.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Afghan Foreign Minister Rangin Spanta stressed that his country would continue economic, cultural, political and regional cooperation with Iran and Tajikistan.

TEHRAN (FNA)- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s special representatives in oil related affairs enacted Salman oil and gas field’s development plan in order to boost Iran’s natural gas, crude oil and gas condensates production capacity.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran has more than 85 billion barrels of recoverable heavy oil, an official said, suggesting about 60 per cent of the country’s reserves are of that crude category.

TEHRAN (FNA)- A number of 290 telecommunication projects were inaugurated in Esfahan Province on Saturday.