Japan said Thursday it was working with Tehran to free a 23-year-old Japanese university student kidnapped by suspected bandits as he traveled alone in southeastern Iran.

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said the country’s political establishment should be open to criticism.

Total SA Chief Executive Christophe de Margerie, in an interview with Le Monde newspaper, has affirmed that his company will continue to work in Iran and Myanmar despite pressure coming from government and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).

China Nonferrous Metal Industry’s Foreign Engineering and Construction Company will co-build an alumina plant in Iran with annual capacity of 200,000 tons, it said in a company filing on Thursday.

Despite chummy embraces and warm words, the leaders of Russia and France could not agree on one of the diplomatic world’s most pressing questions, whether or not Iran’s nuclear program would remain peaceful.

After the collapse of Soviet Union, new countries have emerged in a geography that extends from the Baltic region in the west, through the Pacific Ocean in the East.

What will happen if developing countries don’t have anything to export? This question will help us better understand the challenges that Iran will face during the next decade.

“Nuclear energy is Turkey’s indispensable need,” said Turkish Minister of Energy & Natural Resources Hilmi Guler on Wednesday.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday that preparations were underway for a parliamentary authorization for a cross-border military operation to hunt PKK terrorists who operate from bases in the northern Iraq.

BERLIN, Oct. 10 (Xinhua) — German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier confirmed Wednesday that the German engineer kidnapped months ago in Afghanistan was released.