TEHRAN (FNA) – Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner in a meeting on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland explored avenues for the strengthening of Tehran-Paris relations.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Moscow hopes to have a rail connection with Iran, Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin recently remarked in Yerevan.

TEHRAN (FNA) – Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev welcomed Iran’s call for holding an extraordinary meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

TEHRAN (FNA) – India is optimistic about the 2,775-km Iran-Pakistan-India (IPI) gas pipeline and is deeply committed to the multi-billion dollars project, Union Petroleum Minister Murli Deora said on Thursday.

TEHRAN (FNA) Turkish Energy Minister Hilmi Guler said Thursday that he expects Iran to resume gas exports by next week, ending a two-week cut forced by cold weather and a consumption crunch in Turkey’s eastern neighbor.

MOSCOW – Liberal former Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov, a Kremlin foe, should be barred from Russia’s presidential election because some of the signatures supporting his candidacy were forged, election officials said on Thursday.

BAGHDAD – Reconciliation between Iraq’s divided communities is gaining momentum at a national level, especially in parliament where lawmakers are working “intensively”, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq said on Thursday.

GHAZNI, Afghanistan – Nine police and two civilians were killed in an air strike by U.S.-led troops in Afghanistan, a provincial doctor said on Thursday, but the coalition said Taliban fighters had been killed.

ALLENBY BRIDGE, West Bank – The first battalion of Palestinian security forces crossed into Jordan on Thursday to begin training under a U.S. program after nearly a year-long delay.

ANKARA – Turkey’s Islamist-rooted ruling AK Party and a key opposition party agreed on Thursday to cooperate to lift a ban on the wearing of the Islamic headscarf in universities, a move sure to anger the secular elite.