Relief and rescue teams said that only 18 of the 147 passengers on board the crashed plane survived the incident.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stressed that the west’s opposition to the peaceful nuclear activities of the Islamic Republic on the pretext of diversion to military purposes is a big lie.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian Parliament Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel stressed that the United States’ pressures on Iran which are exerted on the pretext of the nuclear issue are in fact in revenge for the vigilance of the world of Islam.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described his US counterpart George W. Bush as an illogical person for having shrunk from his proposal for a televised debate on global acceptability of the two countries’ rationales, measures and view points.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Wednesday that he hoped the ceasefire with Lebanon could lead to a permanent peace deal, but Lebanon’s premier rebuffed the idea, saying his country would be the last Arab nation to make peace with the Jewish state.

GENEVA (AFP) — The number of people killed by cluster bombs in southern Lebanon since a ceasefire  two weeks ago has climbed to 13, and clearance teams face a tough task as they try to lower the risk, experts said on Wednesday.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Bombers killed nearly 50 Iraqis on Wednesday, mostly in Baghdad, but the top US commander said a security drive in the capital was making progress and local forces could largely be running Iraq within 12 to 18 months.

GAZA CITY (AFP) — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on the international community on Wednesday to “halt Israeli aggression” after nine Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops.

Monarch condoles Mubarak, writer’s family CAIRO — Naguib Mahfouz, the first Arab writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature, died Wednesday at the age of 94, bringing tributes from literary figures and world leaders for an author who became a symbol of liberalism in the face of extremism.

VIENNA (AP) — A defiant Iran continued to enrich uranium up to two days before the UN Security Council’s deadline Thursday for Tehran to freeze such activity or face the threat of sanctions, UN and European officials said Wednesday.