MOSCOW (Reuters) – Ukraine is blocking gas trade intermediary RosUkrEnergo from exporting to several European Union countries and Russia’s Gazprom cannot make up the shortfall, Gazprom’s deputy CEO said on Saturday. “Ukraine is … not allowing RUE (RosUkrEnergo) to take gas from underground storage and export it,” Alexander Medvedev told …

PRAGUE (Reuters) – Negotiations over disputed gas contracts cannot resume because there has been no relevant response from the Ukrainian side, Gazprom’s export head Alexander Medvedev said in Prague on Saturday. Gazprom cut off gas supplies to Ukraine on January 1, and the impact has been felt in some European …

Russian invaders brutally torture and kill Chechen hostages. Human rights organizations have long ago and unambiguously, by factual evidence, proved that the Russian authorities in the person of FSB, GRU, Interior Ministry, and other so-called “power structures” are engaged in brutal tortures and monstrous killings with demonstrative brutality of Chechen …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran’s 2009/10 budget is expected to be based on an oil price of $37.50 per barrel, a “logical” level in view of last year’s price fall, Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said Sunday. An Iranian newspaper last month said the government and a parliament committee had an initial …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Relations between Iraq and Iran are developing in a number of ways, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said during a visit to Iran. “The exchange of high ranking visits between the two country’s officials shows that the bilateral relations are developing in different areas,” Maliki said after a …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran plans to build new storage tanks on Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf waters in a bid to raise its storage capacity by 25%. Construction work of the planned 5 million-barrel storage tanks on Kharg Island is expected to be completed by the next 30 months, Managing …

TEHRAN (FNA)- A five per cent block of Bank Mellat shares is to be offered on the Tehran Stock Exchange. Bank Mellat shares will be on offer during Ten-Day Dawn ceremonies (31 January – 9 February), according to the deputy head of the Iran Privatization Organization (IPO), Esmaeel Gholami. Bank …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari urged the international community to play its role in ending brutal attacks against unarmed and innocent Palestinians in Gaza and said that Israeli attacks violated the UN Charter. Speaking in a meeting with Iranian Oil Minister and Special Envoy Gholam Hossein Nozari, who …

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that it was Iran’s duty to be by the side of Iraq. Ahmadinejad met here with visiting Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Saturday evening. “Our Islamic and humanitarian duty requires us to be incessantly by the side of Iraqi people,” he said. …

KABUL (AFP) – The deputy head of the NATO-led force that has more than 50,000 soldiers in Afghanistan helping to fight extremist insurgents has said security did not deteriorate last year as much as portrayed. A few “spectacular attacks” by the insurgents in 2008 had fed perceptions that security was …