TEHRAN (Reuters) – A Japanese student kidnapped by bandits in Iran is healthy and has spoken to his family in the past few days, an Iranian official said on Sunday.

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – Kurdish officials insisted on Sunday that there had been no Turkish military incursion into northern Iraq, describing as baseless Ankara’s claims that significant losses had been inflicted on Kurdish rebels.

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran hanged three convicted drug smugglers in the central city of Qom on Sunday, Iranian media said, in the latest public execution in the Islamic state.