BRESSANONE, Italy (Reuters) – Pope Benedict called on Sunday for an immediate halt to the fighting between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway South Ossetia region and urged world powers to help find a peaceful solution.

ERGNETI, Georgia (Reuters) – Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili visited the village of Ergneti on the very border with South Ossetia on Sunday as Tbilisi said it had withdrawn it forces from the breakaway territory.

BEIJING (Reuters) – The Georgian and Russian Olympic teams have decided to stay on at the Beijing Games despite Russian military attacks on Georgia’s breakaway region of South Ossetia, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said.

KABUL (Reuters) – Afghan authorities were checking on Sunday reports more than a dozen civilians were killed by a foreign forces air strike in an area to the northeast of the capital, an official said.

TEHRAN, (ISNA)-Iran will do its best to provide Iraq’s security vital for the country’s development, said Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili as meeting prime minister of Iraq’s Kurdish regional government Nechirvan Barzani.

TEHRAN, Aug. 10 (ISNA)-Iran in its letter to the EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana has said it is ready to give an appropriate response to 5+1 countries’ offer as soon as possible.

TEHRAN, Aug. 10 (ISNA)-Iran’s foreign ministry deputy Manouchehr Mohammadi said the Islamic Republic of Iran’s everlasting approach is on the basis of respect for territorial integrity of all countries.

TEHRAN, (ISNA)-Iran’s president senior adviser Samare Hashemi said the Zionist regime letter of objection to Turkish government over Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visit to Istanbul is “of no value.”

TEHRAN, (ISNA)-Iran’s defense minister Mustafa Mohammad Najjar said on Sunday that making new weapons in Iran will boost Islamic Republic’s authority.

TEHRAN, (ISNA)-The Algerian foreign minister Mourad Medelci and four other ministers of Algeria arrived in Tehran on Saturday to prepare the grounds for the visit of Algeria’s president Abdul- Aziz Bouteflika.