Mohammad Zarei and Kia Qadami swooped six golds to help Iran celebrate the Asian junior men’s weightlifting title in advance in the Jordanian capital Amman Tuesday.

The Pakistani Foreign Ministry Spokesman Mohammad Sadiq said Iran’s gas is crucial for Pakistan to meet its growing energy demands.

Kidnappers holding a Japanese student taken hostage in Iran are still holding him outside the Islamic republic in the border zone between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the judiciary said on Tuesday.

NEW YORK – The Defense Department is announcing that a 34-year-old soldier from Queens has been killed by a roadside bomb while on duty in Afghanistan.

Tehran dismissed the recent statements made by the French defense minister about Iran’s nuclear activities, saying that such meaningless remarks which bear no value undermine France’s international status.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is scheduled to arrive here in Tehran Tuesday night.

Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned Portugal’s ambassador to Tehran to voiced Iran’s strong protest at a recent statement issued by his country as the current EU presidency in support of anti-Iran terrorists.

The visit to Tehran by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his private meetings with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei brought further development to Tehran-Moscow relations, Russian envoy to Tehran said.

 Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki is due to pay a daylong visit to Baghdad on Wednesday.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad here on Tuesday dismissed US decision to cut off financial relations with his country’s banks as meaningless.