Middle Orient

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on Central Bank Governor Tahmasb Mazaheri to take quick measures to solve the recent problems preventing state-owned banks from granting loans to the public.

TEHRAN (FNA)- The falling value of the dollar is to blame for around a third of the rise in the price of oil, Iran’s Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Saturday.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told his visiting Syrian counterpart on Saturday that although Iran welcomes talks on its nuclear program, it will not give up even an iota of its legitimate right to access civilian nuclear technology.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Seven detained Baha’i believers have confessed to setting up an illegal organization in Iran that took orders from Israel and others to undermine the Islamic system, an Iranian paper reported on Saturday.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Sixteen people were killed and 11 were injured when a bus and a truck collided in southern Iran on Sunday.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran, the number two oil producer in OPEC, expects the cartel to discuss ways of controlling the quotas of member countries at its next meeting in September, Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said.

TEHRAN (FNA)- World oil prices faced a roller coaster ride this week, tumbling on US demand concerns before rocketing higher on resurgent fears about West’s ultimatum to Iran over the latter’s nuclear energy programs, traders said.

GAZA (Reuters) – Hamas security forces arrested Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s top Fatah representatives in the Gaza Strip on Friday, ratcheting up tensions between the rival factions.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Israel’s peace efforts with Syria should continue, without preconditions, after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert steps down, a candidate to succeed him said on Friday.

ISMAILIA, Egypt (Reuters) – Egyptian police shot dead an unidentified African migrant and detained two others while they were trying to cross illegally into Israel on Friday, a security official and a medical source said.