Meast [3]

Security guards foiled an attempt to hijack an Iranian passenger plane in southern Iran on Monday, arresting the three would-be hijackers, the official news agency IRNA reported.

An Iranian hard-line body has rejected a Parliament bill aimed at blocking the judiciary from closing more newspapers in addition to the 30 shut down in the past six months, a newspaper reported Thursday.

An Iranian citizen has filed a lawsuit in a local court for the release of billions of dollars of Iranian assets frozen in the United States, newspapers said on Tuesday.

Iranian hard-liners harshly criticized moderate President Mohammad Khatami for accusing them of constitutional violations, saying it was part of a ploy to win re-election next year, newspapers reported Tuesday.

Armed Afghan bandits killed an Iranian officer and captured eight others in clashes in the northeastern Khorasan province, Iranian television reported Monday.

Iranian pilgrimages to Iraq have resumed after a three-month break blamed on a dispute over fees for tours that include visits to the Shiite Muslim holy cities of Najaf and Karbala.

Iranian police seized 1.3 tons of drugs and arrested 116 traffickers in the central Yazd province, the official IRNA news agency said on Monday.

Iran's reformist-dominated parliament approved a bill Sunday to block courts from closing down newspapers, after hard-liners rejected another measure last week that banned them from closing down pro-democracy publications.

More than 1,000 students denounced hard-liners and voiced support of pro-democracy reforms at a rally Monday inside the Tehran University campus.

Iranian authorities have impounded a tanker suspected of smuggling Iraqi oil, state-run radio reported Thursday.

Iran has ordered its forces to shoot Afghan drug traffickers on sight in an attempt to end a wave of murders and kidnappings along its border with Afghanistan, a newspaper reported Thursday.

Iran's security forces, judicial officials and hardline clerics colluded last August in the bloody suppression of a nationwide student congress, a special parliamentary report said on Monday.

Reformist editor Akbar Ganji Thursday accused Iran's former intelligence minister of being behind the 1998

Maverick Iranian editor Akbar Ganji is back in solitary confinement after a recent court hearing, in which he shouted he had been beaten and said he was going on hunger strike, a reformist deputy said on Monday.

Security forces destroyed a

Iran's leading satirist apologized in court on Wednesday for

An upcoming Islamic summit in Qatar was nearly collapsing Wednesday, with the two titans of the Muslim world, Saudi Arabia and Iran, saying they will not attend unless the tiny Gulf state agrees to sever trade ties with Israel.

Undercover Iranian police have arrested two suspected bombers near the border with Iraq, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported Friday.

Two Iraq-based Iranian rebels who planned to carry out bombings died Wednesday after clashes with police in southern Iran, the official news agency IRNA reported.

Iranian students have warned of potential tension if campus security personnel at a Tehran polytechnic continue harassing women students, the Iran Students News Agency (ISNA) said on Wednesday.

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Iraq's Deputy Prime Minister Tarik Aziz Thursday discussed with Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara ways to boost trade ties, and said he would fly back to Baghdad in defiance of U.N. sanctions.

Iraq state media said on Monday that support for U.N. sanctions against Baghdad was crumbling among Gulf states, contrary to U.S. assertions that the region still worried about Iraqi compliance with disarmament requirements.

Iraq has begun pumping oil through a pipeline to Syria, apparently outside the terms of the United Nations oil-for-food arrangement.

Iraq dismissed as baseless on Wednesday a statement by Saudi Defense Minister Prince Sultan bin Abdullah Al-Aziz which denied that the aim of the U.S. troops in the Kingdom was aggression on Iraq.

Iraq resumed domestic flights to the towns of Basra and Mosul Sunday in defiance of no-fly zones enforced by U.S. and British warplanes since shortly after the 1991 Gulf War, the official Iraqi News Agency reported.

Iraq has granted asylum to two Saudis who hijacked a London-bound Saudi plane last month and surrendered in Baghdad, Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf said Monday.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz arrived in Beijing on Sunday, state media said, apparently on a mission to drum up international support for ending decade-old U.N. sanctions against his country.

A leading Iraqi newspaper on Saturday said little was likely to result from dialogue between the United Nations and Baghdad on easing the decade-old sanctions against Iraq.

Building on a thaw in relations with Arab neighbors, Iraq announced Friday that construction will soon begin on a Jordanian-Iraqi oil pipeline and that it is working with Syria to reopen a joint pipeline closed 18 years ago.

Iraq has told several countries and the United Nations that it would allow international arms inspectors back if their mission was short and it would lead to a lifting of U.N. sanctions, a Saudi daily said Wednesday.

An Iraqi leader said in remarks published Wednesday that his government is questioning the benefits of exporting oil while the payments are piling up in a U.N. escrow account.

High-profile Moscow talks between Russia and Iraq on ending a decade of U.N. sanctions against the oil-rich Gulf state went into overtime Wednesday.

Iraq said on Saturday it would defy Western-imposed no-fly zones by resuming domestic passenger flights, although the United States and Britain have said they do not object.

Iraq said on Wednesday that its ties with India had turned the corner and the two nations were set on a long-term strategic partnership.

Iraq said Tuesday its anti- aircraft defenses had hit one of a group of Western warplanes patrolling over the north of the country.

Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz arrived in Damascus on Saturday aboard the first direct Iraqi flight to Syria in nearly two decades, officials said.

Iraq has condemned Kuwait for seizing an Iranian ship suspected of smuggling a cargo of Iraqi dates in violation of U.N. sanctions, Iraqi newspapers reported Friday.

Delegates at an Islamic summit promised strong support for the Palestinians and urged the United States to be more evenhanded in the Mideast peace process -- citing persistent feelings of bias felt by many in the Muslim world.

Candidates backed by a banned Islamist group have scored surprising gains in parliamentary elections, despite violence during the vote between their supporters and police, security sources said on Sunday.

The Israeli army, battling a Palestinian revolt in the West Bank and Gaza, came under attack in the Lebanese border area as Prime Minister Ehud Barak tried to enlist Egypt's help in peace negotiations.

An opposition attempt to topple Prime Minister Ehud Barak forced the Israeli leader to turn his attention away from the conflict with the Palestinians Monday and focus on saving his government.

Former Israeli prime minister Shimon Peres had a scare on a helicopter flight Thursday when the door of the aircraft opened twice.

Israel is calling up its army reserves to confront the Palestinian uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, a senior military official said Wednesday.

Arab-Israeli violence re-opened on the Israeli border with Lebanon when Hezbollah guerrillas set off a roadside bomb, wounding three Israeli soldiers.

Israeli tank fire has killed four Palestinians outside a Jewish settlement in Gaza.

When sandbags were stacked outside the windows of her fourth-grade classroom a few days ago, Maya Engel breathed easier.

An Israeli Embassy employee was shot near his home in the Jordanian capital and slightly wounded, Israeli officials in Amman and Jerusalem said.