Ehud Olmert on Monday became the first Israeli prime minister to visit a Palestinian town since the outbreak of fighting seven years ago, meeting under heavy guard with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to talk about the creation of a Palestinian state.

Nearly three decades after defecting to the West, former Romanian Foreign Intelligence deputy commander Ion Mihai Pacepa appeared on a Romanian TV news programme last week and confirmed that the late communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu’s regime plotted to kill expatriates working at Radio Free Europe (RFE).

Iranian and International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) teams of experts started the next round of talks to resolve the remaining issues between the two sides.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki Moon in a phone conversation with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki called for Tehran’s assistance to resolve the hostage-taking crisis in Afghanistan.

Iran, Iraq and the United States started a study of the root causes of insecurities in Iraq in a trilateral expert-level committee meeting in Baghdad on Monday.

Iranian oil minister expressed the hope that the final contract for the export of Iran’s gas to Pakistan and India through a multi-billion dollar pipeline – known as IPI pipeline – would be signed by the leaders of the three states in the near future.

We do not need to import parts of F14 from the US, rather we are now striving to manufacture the 5th generation of fighter jets domestically, Iranian Defense Minister Brigadier General Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said here on Monday.

A new oil field was explored in the central parts of Iran, an informed source said on Monday.

Iran and Morocco issued a joint stamp on Monday which bears Falak-ol-Aflak Citadel in Lorestan province as its theme, an Iranian official said.

A trilateral committee formed by representatives of Iran, US and Iraq started its meeting Monday morning, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Mohammad Ali Hosseini said.