DIYARBAKIR, Turkey – The death toll from a bomb explosion in southeast Turkey’s largest city has risen to five, including three children, and the number of injured stands at 110, security sources said on Friday.

GAZA – Israeli troops killed two Palestinian Hamas gunmen and wounded three others in the Gaza Strip on Friday, the Islamist faction and hospital officials said.

TEHRAN (FNA) Tehran’s interim Friday Prayers leader Ayatollah Mohammad Emami Kashani called on Iranians to watch out for any wasteful use of the country’s heavily subsidized energy supplies, cautioning that Iranians are the only world nation consuming cheap energy supplies extravagantly.

TEHRAN (FNA) Iranian Vice-President for Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Seyed Ahmad Moussavi was assigned as Tehran’s ambassador to Damascus.

TEHRAN (FNA) Iran’s deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Seyed Abbas Araghchi was appointed as the country’s ambassador to Japan.

TEHRAN (FNA) Libya has hinted it will not support further sanctions on Iran if its nuclear file goes back to the UN Security Council.

TEHRAN (FNA) Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said in the central city of Yazd on Thursday that Iran should have launched nuclear efforts several decades ago to meet the growing need to electricity.

TEHRAN (FNA) Iranian embassy in Ankara reacted angrily to an article last month by British Foreign Secretary David Miliband in the Turkish daily Zaman which argued the need to keep up the pressure on Iran over its nuclear activities.

TEHRAN (FNA) Iran’s nuclear program and the multi-billion dollar gas pipeline project involving three countries, including India, were among the issues that figured in talks Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki had with his Pakistani counterpart Inam-ul Haque in Islamabad on Friday.

TEHRAN (FNA) ONGC shares gained momentum Friday on the company’s overseas arm ONGC Videsh and the UK-based Hinduja group is planning to invest close to $20 billion in exploration assets in Iran and a refinery and LNG terminal in India.