London, Jan 26, IRNA -- Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has called for a more informed dialogue between the West and Islam by using the example of the Pahlavi rule in Iran to show that the forces of secularism can be more oppressive than religious orthodoxy. ... more

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Riot police wielding nightsticks dispersed 3,000 teachers protesting for higher pay outside the office of President Mohammad Khatami on Saturday as he met with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. ... more

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei has told the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan that his country supports the peace process in neighbouring Afghanistan. ... more

Tehran, Jan 26, IRNA -- Majlis Speaker Mehdi Karroubi in a meeting with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan discussed the developments in Afghanistan and the reconstruction process in the war-torn states as well as the situation in Palestine. ... more

TEHRAN (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Saturday discounted reports of Iranian interference in post-Taliban Afghanistan and praised Tehran's role in helping to rebuild its war-shattered neighbour. ... more

KABUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Afghanistan's former King, Zahir Shah, is to end 28 years of exile and return home in mid-March, his son said on Saturday, as the country's interim leader called for U.S. forces to remain there until the al Qaeda network is totally wiped out. ... more

Tehran, Jan 26, IRNA -- In a meeting with the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei ... ... more

Clashes erupted between Iranian riot police and teachers near the presidential offices in Tehran, and about a dozen were arrested, an AFP correspondent said. ... more

PARIS 22 Jan. (IPS) Iranians do not agree, do not follow and do not accept the "palestinisation" of the regime's foreign policy "confiscated" by hard line Iranian clerics led by Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, considering it as "very harmful" to the nation's interests, ... ... more

BEIJING (Agence France-Presse) — China yesterday condemned as "unreasonable" U.S. sanctions imposed on three Chinese firms accused of supplying Iran with materials used to make chemical and biological weapons. ... more

Now it has taken a deadly turn. Those who thought that the collapse of Enron, the world's biggest bankruptcy, would be restricted to Wall Street, got a nasty shock on Friday. The death of Clifford Baxter, the company's former vice-chairman, makes this a scandal of worldwide interest. It is a conspiracy theorist's dream come true, including document shredding, secret phone calls, congressional hearings and now a suicide. Was there fraud? If so, who was involved? The cast in this drama is huge, from Enron's 20,000 employees (who lost their savings), to banking giants Citigroup and JP Morgan, the world's largest accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, and right up to the White House. ... more

Palestinian President Yasser Arafat has been extremely careful to place himself on the right side of America's crusade against perceived enemies this time around. For the past decade, his critics have blamed him for making the blunder of supporting Saddam Hussein instead of George Bush Sr. in the 1991 Gulf War, and thus burdening the Palestine question with espousal of another lost cause. If only he had made the right choice, some critics continue to chide him, the Palestinians would have now achieved untold successes. Others, however, blame him for having sold out and abandoned the cause. ... more

PRESIDENT MUSHARRAF plans to lead Pakistan for the next five years, steering the country to a "fine-tuned democracy", he said in an interview with The Times. It was necessary for the stability of the country that he continued in the post, he said. General Musharraf is convinced that, despite the threat of war with India, there will be no conflict to interrupt his plans for democratisation and the elimination of Islamic extremism in Pakistan. ... more