TEHRAN (FNA) Iran is expected to resume gas exports to Turkey by the beginning of next week, ending a days-long cut forced by a supply crunch, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday.

TEHRAN (FNA) The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei, is in Tehran for two days of talks on Iran’s nuclear program.

TEHRAN (FNA) Iran is unlikely to sign next week a bilateral agreement with Pakistan for export of natural gas and has said it was keen on India joining the tri-nation ‘peace’ pipeline project.

TEHRAN (FNA) Iran’s Parliament Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel called on US President George W. Bush to act wisely and refrain from interfering in the Islamic Republic’s upcoming parliament elections.

WASHINGTON, Jan 10: US Defence Secretary Robert Gates has said he plans to send 3,200 additional troops to Afghanistan by April to deal with an expected Taliban offensive.

BRUSSELS (AFP) — NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has rejected suggestions that not enough allies are pulling their weight in Afghanistan, as he welcomed US plans to send more troops there.

TBILISI – Georgian prosecutors on Thursday charged opposition politician and tycoon Badri Patarkatsishvili, in self-imposed exile in Israel and Britain, with plotting a coup and attempting to organize a terrorist attack.

LAHORE, Pakistan – A suicide bomb attack killed at least 22 people, most of them policemen, in Pakistan on Thursday, deepening a sense of insecurity weeks before an election that could weaken President Pervez Musharraf’s grip on power.

BAGHDAD – U.S. warplanes dropped 40,000 pounds of bombs on more than 40 targets on Baghdad’s southern outskirts on Thursday in a major strike on al Qaeda safe havens, the military said in a statement.

WASHINGTON – Defense Secretary Robert Gates will consider sending some 3,000 Marines to Afghanistan to thwart any spring offensive by Taliban militants, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.