Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today the Holocaust is a “myth” that Europeans have used to create a Jewish state in the heart of the Islamic world.

A GASOLINE truck exploded after smashing into a bus in southeast Iran late on Thursday, killing 90 people and injuring more than 100 yesterday.

More than 70 people were killed when a petrol tanker crashed into public buses in south east Iran, state television reported today.

FREED kidnap victim Aidan Leahy will complete the first stage of his homecoming when he is handed over to officials at the Irish Embassy in the Iranian capital, Tehran, this morning.

The Department of Foreign Affairs has confirmed that Aidan Leahy, the Irish tourist who was held captive in Iran for the past month, has been released from captivity by his kidnappers.

Reports from earthquake-stricken Iran are indicating that the Irish tourist kidnapped there at the beginning of December will be released later today.

FEARS have heightened for the safety of kidnapped Irish tourist Aidan Leahy who went missing in the region of Iran devastated by yesterday’s earthquake.

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Brian Cowen has written to the Iranian Government to express his concern at the kidnapping of an Irish citizen by drug traffickers.

The Iranian government is working to secure the release of an Irish tourist kidnapped over a week ago, it emerged today.

Iran today urged Ireland not to pay a €5m ransom demanded by kidnappers of Irish citizen Aidan Leahy.

The Foreign Office today named an Irish tourist kidnapped in Iran as Aidan Leahy.

AN Irishman and at least two Germans are being held hostage by a gang of drug smugglers in southern Iran which is reportedly demanding between €3 million and €5 million for their release.

Armed drug smugglers have kidnapped one Irish and two German tourists who were on a cycling trip and are demanding €5m for their release.

SEARCH teams pressed through fog, rain and strong wind yesterday to recover some mutilated bodies from the mountainous site of a military plane crash that killed 302 members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard, the state news agency reported.

A military plane carrying 302 members of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards has crashed in the country’s south-eastern mountains, killing everyone on board, state-run media reported.

A plane carrying 302 people, all military personnel, crashed in southern Iran tonight, killing all on board, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.