Ivory Coast’s ambassador to Iran, heading an economic delegation, is scheduled to arrive in Iran’s Semnan Province to study expansion of ties and bolstering of cooperation between his country and Semnan.

A committee is due to be formed at the Islamic Consultative Assembly to follow up on the technical issues of Iran’s nuclear activities and plans, Rapporteur of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Kazem Jalali said here on Monday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki voiced Tehran’s preparedness to bolster cooperation and expand all-out ties with Latino states, and stressed Iran’s companionship with the people and contemporary movements of that region.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and ministers of the Nicaraguan government in a 4-hour-long meeting in Managua on Sunday studied the possible grounds for the activity of Iranian companies in Nicaragua.

Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega said Iran’s policy is in pursuit of peace and justice, and further described the Islamic Republic of Iran as the biggest victim of terrorism.

BBC News – The Taleban have threatened that hundreds of suicide bombers will attack the Afghan government and foreign military targets this year. Mark Dummett reports from Kabul on the increasing fear of violence in the country. It seems as if the Taleban’s much-hyped spring offensive may have finally begun, …

AFP – Taliban insurgents Saturday vowed a new round of attacks against Afghan and foreign troops in the war-torn country, promising to focus more attention on the relatively-peaceful north. Naming the new drive “Ghazwatul Badr” after the historic battle fought by the Prophet Mohammed some 1,400 years ago, a Taliban …

By Saeed Ali Achakzai, Reuters The fugitive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar has urged his followers to step up suicide attacks on foreign and Afghan troops and remain united, according to a Taliban commander. Violence has surged in Afghanistan in recent weeks after a winter lull, following last year’s bloodiest …

BBC News – The Taleban have threatened that hundreds of suicide bombers will attack the Afghan government and foreign military targets this year. Mark Dummett reports from Kabul on the increasing fear of violence in the country. It seems as if the Taleban’s much-hyped spring offensive may have finally begun, …

By NOOR KHAN, Associated Press A purported Taliban statement demanded the release of a number of the group’s fighters and the withdrawal of French troops from Afghanistan in exchange for the freedom of two kidnapped French aid workers. Separately, suspected Taliban militants ambushed a police patrol in eastern Afghanistan in …