An Indian fisherman aboard a boat shot at by the US Navy off Dubai’s coast has told officials the crew received no warning before being fired upon, the Indian ambassador to the United Arab Emirates has said.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards will hold new naval exercises in the strategic Strait of Hormuz in February, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

Iran says it has proposed a new round of talks on its nuclear programme with six world powers that have been trying for years to persuade Tehran to freeze aspects of its atomic work that could provide a possible pathway to weapons production.

The UN nuclear chief says it is his duty to “alert the world” about suspected work in Iran to develop atomic bombs, as major powers prepared to intensify the pressure on theIslamic state.

Syrian security forces kept up a violent crackdown on dissent today as the embattled regime faced surprising calls to end the violence from its closest ally, Iran.

GUNFIRE and shelling rattled a city in central Syria yesterday and killed a 12-year-old boy, as president Bashar Assad’s regime expanded its military crackdown on a seven-week-old uprising.

Gunfire and shelling rattled a city in central Syria today killing a 12-year-old boy, as President Bashar Assad’s autocratic regime expanded its military crackdown on a seven-week-old uprising, activists said.

Four people were killed when Syrian army troops backed by tanks and three helicopters took a prominent mosque that had been controlled by residents in a besieged southern city today, a witness said.

Investigators today found the black box from a passenger jet which crashed while trying to make an emergency landing in a snowstorm in north-western Iran, killing at least 77 people.

Eighteen members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard were killed in an explosion at an ammunition depot at a military base in western Iran.

European Union leaders today adopted a new set of sanctions against Iran in a further effort to stall its disputed nuclear programme.

Iran dismissed the latest United Nations sanctions over its nuclear programme as “annoying flies” and “a used tissue”, after the US and its allies scored a long-sought victory.

The Obama administration today slapped new sanctions on several affiliates of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, targeting one person and four companies for penalties over their alleged involvement in producing and spreading weapons of mass destruction.

Preparations were today under way for the return to the UK of former hostage Peter Moore after his release yesterday from two and a half years of captivity in Iraq.

BRITAIN’S ambassador in Iran was summoned to the country’s foreign ministry yesterday amid growing tension over the clampdown on protesters in Tehran and other cities.

Five sailors including an Irish journalist who were detained after apparently straying into Iranian waters have been released, it was reported today.

Iran faced more world condemnation today after parliament backed the Cabinet appointment of a man wanted for the bombing of a Jewish centre in Argentina.

Iran’s conservative-dominated parliament approved most of President Mahmoud Ahamedinejad’s choices for key Cabinet posts today, including endorsing the defence minister nominee who is wanted by Argentina for a deadly 1994 bombing of a Jewish cultural centre.

Iran’s government said today that incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the winner of the country’s presidential election with a landslide 62.63% of the vote.

Two people have died in a cholera outbreak in an Iraqi province south of Baghdad, indicating that water quality and sanitation remain poor in a country that has endured years of war, health officials said today.

US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice flexed America’s muscles in the Middle East, forcefully warning Iran the US would not ignore threats and would take any action necessary to defend friends and interests in the Persian Gulf.

Iran test-fired more long-range missiles in a second round of exercises meant to show that the country can defend itself against any attack by the US or Israel, Iranian state television reported today.

Democratic presidential rivals, Barack Obama and John Edwards, have attacked front-runner Hillary Clinton in a televised party debate, questioning her honesty, consistency and judgment.

A top American commander on Friday accused Iran of supplying powerful roadside bombs to militants in Afghanistan and said the US would “act decisively” if the cross-border flow continues.

The American White House welcomed a symbolic unannounced visit to Iraq by France’s foreign minister.

The sudden release of an Iranian diplomat missing for two months in Iraq raised new hope today that 15 British sailors and marines seized by Iran may soon be freed.

Iran today warned it would pursue “illegal actions” if the UN Security Council insisted it halt uranium enrichment, an apparent reference to nuclear activities outside international regulations.

SIX world powers yesterday reached an agreement on a package of new sanctions against Iran including an embargo on arms exports and financial restrictions on more individuals and companies associated with Tehran’s nuclear and missile programmes, many linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have killed 17 insurgents in clashes in north-western Iran near the border with Turkey that saw four of its officers die, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported today.

Iran today rejected US accusations that the highest levels of Iranian leadership had armed Shiite militants in Iraq with armour-piercing roadside bombs.

Iran says it needs time to review a plan proposed by the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency in which it will hold off on imposing sanctions if Tehran suspends uranium enrichment.

ARGENTINIAN prosecutors have asked a judge to order the arrest of former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani for the 1994 bombing of a Jewish centre that killed scores of people.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana today reacted cautiously to a proposal from a senior Iranian nuclear official that France enrich Iran’s uranium on Iranian soil to satisfy international demands for foreign supervision of the Islamic republic’s nuclear program.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed today to resist pressure from the UN Security Council over his country’s nuclear programme, saying “no power” can take nuclear fuel cycle technology away from Iran.

Bombs killed six people and wounded more than 30 others today in Ahvaz, a southwestern city with a history of violence involving members of Iran’s Arab minority, Iranian state media reported.

GEORGE Michael, Eric Clapton and Kenny G will no longer be heard on Iranian airwaves after hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued a decree banning Western music from the country’s radio and TV stations.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gave her strongest rebuke yet yesterday to the renewed hard-line Islamic leadership of Iran, saying that “no civilised nation” can call for the annihilation of another.

Wildlife experts are celebrating the sightings of two groups of rare Asiatic cheetahs in central Iran during recent months, raising hopes that one of the world’s fastest moving creatures could be saved from extinction, conservation officials said today.

Iran’s president escorted reporters on an unprecedented visit to the once-secret Natanz nuclear complex today, giving a glimpse into the underground uranium enrichment plant the US and Europe demand be shut down.

IRAN said yesterday that nuclear watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei would visit Tehran for talks on Thursday, just two weeks before a deadline for Iran to dispel US-led doubts about its nuclear ambitions expires.

Attackers used an ambulance for cover as they carried out a drive-by attack on American forces at one of Saddam Hussein’s former palaces in Iraq, a US military official said today.

Bodies found by British forces near Basra in southern Iraq were those of Iranian soldiers killed during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, state-run Tehran radio reported today.

Ali Akbar Dareini