TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran will start gas exports to Armenia by Oct. 1st, head of the gas export operation office of the National Iranian Gas Company (NIOC) said following the latest round of talks between the two sides.

THE HAGUE (Reuters) – The U.N. tribunal for the former Yugoslavia entered a plea of not guilty on behalf of former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic for war crimes and genocide charges on Friday after he refused to plead.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Rania is only 15-years old, but in the past week the softly spoken Iraqi girl has been drugged, strapped with explosives, arrested by men she nearly blew up and then shoved into a detention centre.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Iraq’s once formidable Mehdi Army appears to be bowing to orders to lay down arms, but it is yet unclear if Shi’ite fighters are preparing another offensive with Iranian help, a U.S. intelligence official said.

PARIS/MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia and European powers took a step back from confrontation over Georgia on Friday, with Moscow urging the EU not to rush into punitive action and France saying now was not the time for sanctions.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – A keen sense the West cheated Moscow out of promised warmer ties after the Cold War explains why Russia, recovered from post-Soviet collapse, has refused to be cowed over Georgia and demanded its views be heard.

RIGA (Reuters) – Latvia favors the suspension of talks on a new cooperation pact between the European Union and Russia until Moscow has withdrawn its troops from Georgia, the Baltic state’s foreign minister said on Friday.

TBILISI (Reuters) – Georgia said on Friday it was cutting diplomatic ties with Russia over the Kremlin’s recognition of two Georgian rebel regions as independent states.”We have received instructions at the Foreign Ministry and we will cut diplomatic relations with the Russian Federation,” Deputy Foreign Minister Grigol Vashadze told reporters.

DUSHANBE/MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia’s energy minister and a top oil company denied on Friday they were preparing to cut oil flows to Europe in response to threatened sanctions, a step Moscow never took even at the height of the Cold War.

ANKARA (Reuters) – An explosion rocked a gunpowder factory in central Turkey on Friday, killing two people and injuring another 12, Turkish broadcasters reported.