Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, heading a high-ranking delegation, left Tehran for Algeria this morning.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani on Monday said he hoped for the success of talks between Iran and the United States on establishing security and stability in Iraq.

A Christian opposition candidate narrowly won a by-election to Lebanon’s parliament in a result that seemed set to further complicate a 9-month-old political crisis.  In the latest showdown between Prime Minister Fouad Siniora’s Western-backed government and its opponents, tens of thousands of Lebanese voted in by-elections on Sunday triggered by …