ANKARA – Turkey plans to liberalize its media sector, allowing foreigners to own up to 50 percent of broadcasters instead of the current 25 percent, according to a draft law prepared by media watchdog RTUK and obtained by Reuters on Monday.

BELGRADE – The Serbian government has adopted a secret plan to implement “in case of a unilateral declaration of independence” by the Albanian majority of the breakaway Kosovo province, it said on Monday.

MOSCOW – Russia announced on Monday it will not issue new entry visas to staff working in the British government’s cultural offices in two regions, sharpening a row that has soured already-poor relations.

KABUL – Detained Taliban suspects, some held for years by the U.S. military in Afghanistan, were able to speak to family members by video link on Monday.

TEHRAN (FNA) The US president is striving to hide the thick file of his administration’s failures, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Mohammad Ali Hosseini said in the wake of the recent statements made by US President George Bush against Iran.

TEHRAN (FNA) Iran are Morocco are decisive to bolster cooperation in the tourism sector, an Iranian tourism official said here on Monday.

TEHRAN (FNA) Proposed by foreign minister and approved by the president, Asghar Ebrahimi Asl was assigned as the Islamic Republic of Iran’s ambassador to South Africa.

TEHRAN (FNA) Iran and Russia are due to agree on a date for the launch of operation of the Islamic Republic’s first nuclear power plant in the southern port city of Bushehr within the next few weeks, deputy head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said here on Sunday.

TEHRAN (FNA) An earthquake measuring 3.5 on the Richter scale jolted the areas in the vicinity of the town of Shahmirzad in Iran’s northern province of Semnan on Monday.

TEHRAN (FNA) Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki voiced Tehran’s determination to provide answers to the questions posed by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about its nuclear program.