Middle East’s oldest village found In Iran

September 30th, 2009 Gibbs says Iran tests were 'provocative'WASHINGTON — The U.S. says Iran's recent missile tests were clearly preplanned, but intended to provoke the West.

September 22nd, 2009 TEHRAN - An Iranian military aircraft crashed in the south of Tehran Tuesday in a military parade marking the anniversary of the start of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war. The military plane, which was taking part in air manoeuvres during the parade, crashed in a village just outside Tehran, IRNA news agency said, without specifying the type of the crashed plane and casualties.

September 21st, 2009 Rights groups want UN Iran envoyNEW YORK — Human rights groups are urging the United Nations to appoint a special envoy to investigate continuing abuses in Iran following the disputed presidential elections there. Human Rights Watch and the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran say that at least 72 people have died in the crackdown that followed opposition protests against the ballot, in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won re-election.

August 18th, 2009 Russia, Israel set to discuss Mideast peace, IranMOSCOW — Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev is set to host Israeli counterpart Shimon Peres for talks expected to focus on the Middle East and the Iranian nuclear standoff. Russia aspires to host an international conference to discuss the Middle East peace process, and Medvedev and Peres are expected to discuss the issue during Tuesday's talks in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.

August 16th, 2009 TEHRAN - Three people were reported killed when an army training helicopter crashed on Sunday west of Tehran. Iran state television quoted the Governor of Iran's Shahriar Province, Mohammad Ali Erfan Manesh,as saying that three person onboard had died.

July 29th, 2009 WASHINGTON - An international team of scientists has discovered an extinct rodent species, based on fossil tooth remains found in Alborache, Valencia. Eomyops noeliae, from the Eomyidae family, represents the oldest find within this genus in the world.

June 28th, 2009 WASHINGTON - The ruins of the oldest human settlement in the Aegean Islands found so far have been unearthed in archaeological excavations by a team of Greek, Italian and American archaeologists on the island of Limnos. The Aegean Islands are a group of islands in the Aegean Sea, with mainland Greece to the west and north and Turkey to the east.

June 17th, 2009 LONDON - Iran is mastering nuclear technology and believes firmly in having the option of a nuclear weapon, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohamed ElBaradei, said in a BBC interview Wednesday. "It is my gut feeling that Iran would like to have the technology to enable it to have nuclear weapons," ElBaradei said.

June 4th, 2009 CAIRO - In a much-anticipated speech to the Muslim world from Cairo Thursday, US President Barack Obama urged Iran and other countries to abandon their nuclear weapons programmes. He acknowledged the US role in "overthrowing a democratically elected government" in Iran.

May 25th, 2009 TEHRAN - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Monday invited US President Barack Obama to a debate at the UN in New York. "I want a debate with the US president at the UN in New York so that the whole world could listen and make its own judgement," Ahmadinejad said at a press conference in Tehran.

May 20th, 2009 NICOSIA - Iran has announced that next week it will put a steel mill into operation in Khuzestan Province, becoming one of the world's ten producers of wide steel sheets and Middle East's only country to do so. Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization has invested 370 million dollars plus 3.5 trillion Iranian rials in the project to produce 1.05 million tons of steel sheets of up to 4.5 meters width per annum, the Mehr News Agency reported.

May 11th, 2009 TEHRAN - A 19-year-old boy is among the 475 candidates registered to contest the presidential elections in Iran, officials said. Karmran Daneshjoo, head of the election headquarters, said the number of candidates for the 10th presidential elections has reduced by 53 percent as compared to that of the previous elections in 2005.

January 25th, 2009 BERLIN - The Czech Republic, which holds the rotating presidency of European Union (EU), has stressed direct and swift talks between Iran and the US to engage the two countries in rapproachment process, IRNA news agency reported Monday. 'I hope very much there will be soon direct and intensive talks between Washington and Tehran,' Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg has said in an interview with Germany's Handelsblatt business newspaper.

January 20th, 2009 TEHRAN - Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has said that new US President Barack Obama should try to understand the 'new Middle East which was emerging', Iran's IRNA news agency reported Wednesday. Mottaki Tuesday said that the traditional ways of looking into Middle East issues would no longer work.

January 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - US president-elect Barack Obama indicated that his administration would move 'swiftly' with new tactics in its approach to Iran to head off the impending nuclear crisis and block Tehran's support of terrorism. Speaking Sunday in an interview with ABC news, Obama said he expected Iran to be 'one of our biggest challenges' when he takes office Jan 20.