TEHRAN, Jan 15 (AFP) - Speaker of the parliament hinted Tuesday that he may quit his post because of the battle with the conservative judiciary over the jailing of an MP. ... more

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - With the hunt for Osama bin Laden and his associates bogging down in regional and tribal politics, American officials say they are facing the unsettling prospect that Al Qaeda members are slipping away into Iran. ... more

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) met an Iranian intelligence officer in the mid-1990s to try to forge an alliance to conduct a terrorism campaign against the United States, according to a new book by a former CIA (news - web sites) officer. ... more

Congress may have cleared the way for the U.S. citizens held hostage by Iran in 1979 to claim damages from their captors, according to a hearing in U.S. District Court yesterday, but the judge overseeing the landmark suit said he wanted to hear one more round of legal arguments before handing down a ruling. ... more

A HEZBOLLAH leader, responsible for kidnapping Western hostages and hijacking civilian aircraft during the 1980s, was accused yesterday of masterminding the shipment of Iranian arms destined for Palestinian fighters. ... more

JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli officials say the Palestinian Authority (news - web sites) and Iran are forming a strategic alliance, with Tehran supplying arms and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia hoping to set up a terror network in Israel and the Palestinian territories. ... more

JERUSALEM -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon denounced Sunday what he termed a "very dangerous" alliance between the Palestinian Authority and Iran that has already resulted in the shipment of tons of weapons to the region and poses a serious threat to the future of the Jewish state. ... more

An Israeli military intelligence team told top Bush-administration officials last week that they have "incontrovertible evidence" showing that Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamene'i, was aware of the 50-ton arms shipment to the Palestinian Authority that was intercepted by Israeli warships in the Red Sea on Jan. 4. ... more

WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence agencies helped Israel track down a ship bound for Palestinian-ruled territory carrying a large cache of arms allegedly obtained from Iran, The Washington Times reported on Tuesday. ... more

TEHRAN On Monday, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami and Afghan Prime Minister Hamid Karzai spoke by telephone and discussed the ongoing situation in Afghanistan, calling for further cooperation between the two neighbors. ... more

TEHRAN (AP): Iran and Iraq, which have yet to normalise ties more than a decade after they fought an eight-year war, are considering a resumption of air links, their transport ministers said on Monday. ... more

ASHINGTON (AFP ): The United States indicated Monday it was losing patience with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat over his failure to provide an explanation for an arms smuggling operation foiled by Israel. ... more

Tehran, Jan 14, IRNA -- Chairman of the Expediency Council of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Monday that the United States and Britain themselves actively helped form Taliban and al-Qaeda network in Afghanistan. ... more