TEHRAN (FNA) – Iran will help Zimbabwe defeat western sanctions by assisting President Robert Mugabe’s government in setting up a farm equipment manufacturing plant, refurbish an oil refinery and expand a power plant, Tehran’s envoy to Harare said on Monday.

By the Bush administration’s standards, Defense Secretary Robert Gates was remarkably candid last week: acknowledging that popular opposition in Europe to the Iraq war was making it harder to persuade European governments to send more troops or take more risks to salvage Afghanistan.

Kabul: Tariq Azizuddin, Pakistan’s ambassador to Afghanistan, has been reported missing, senior Afghan officials confirmed on Monday amid speculation that he had been kidnapped.