Iranian researchers have produced an indigenous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) which can be used for reconnaissance mission together with a domestically-designed and -developed solar car. The aircraft, named ‘Afar’ and developed by Iranian technicians at the Qazvin Branch of the Islamic Azad University, has a wingspan of three meters (about 10 feet) and a hull length of 1.5 meters (about 5 feet). The... 

Iran’s supreme leader has refused a US offer for one-to-one talks over Tehran’s supposed nuclear weapons program. He dismissed talks as meaningless and accused Washington of coercing Iran at gunpoint. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei disregarded the US proposal of direct negotiations, claiming that “talks will not solve any problems.” “Some naive people like the idea of negotiating... 

People remove fences and barbed wire during a protest rally outside Interior Ministry against the killing of Tunisian opposition leader, Chokri Belaid, in Tunis, on February 6, 2013. Four Tunisian opposition parties have quit the country’s constituent assembly, calling for a nationwide strike following murder of the leading opposition leader Chokri Belaid. Report say that the political parties... 

Iran has unveiled today the optimized versions of two indigenously-designed and -manufactured tanks, named Zolfaqar and Samsam. The tanks, which have been upgraded by military experts in the Iranian Army’s Ground Forces, were unveiled on Monday as part of the Ten-Day Dawn celebrations commemorating the victory of the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran. Commander of the Iranian Army’s Ground... 

Iran has presented its first domestically designed defense fighter-bomber jet with limited stealth capabilities. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stressed that the plane was designed for defense purposes, and will not be used for aggression. Codenamed Qaher-313 (‘Conqueror’), the jet is an advanced single-seat single-engine military plane. It is reportedly capable of engaging targets... 

An Armenian presidential candidate from the Union for National Self-Determination party has been shot and wounded in the center of Yerevan, the country’s capital. The attempt on Paruyr Hayrikyan’s life may delay the election. ­Following the incident, the 64 year-old Hayrikyan was rushed to the Saint Gregory the Illuminator medical center with two gunshot wounds, in the shoulder and in the... 

Syria’s state television says the Israeli regime is deploying military forces on the Syrian border. The move comes a day after an Israeli airstrike reportedly targeted a defense research center near the Syrian capital city of Damascus, killing two people and injuring five others. On Thursday, Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah strongly condemned the Israeli regime’s aerial assault on its neighboring... 

Syria has filed an official complaint to the United Nations over an Israeli airstrike on a military research center near Damascus. The move followed a threat from Iran that Israel would face “serious consequences” for the attack. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said Tel Aviv would face repercussions for the Israeli airstrike against a military research center in Jamraya,... 

Riots have been raging along Egypt’s coast line in the cities of Cairo and Port Said. Mobs of angry protesters have gathered to voice their grievances against Islamist President Muhammed Morsi and to mourn their dead. Though Egyptian President Morsi had issued a state of emergency and city wide curfews the chaos continues to escalate. The head of the Egyptian military, General Abdel-Fattah el Sissi,... 

Israel has boycotted the UN human rights forum over fears of scrutiny of its treatment of residents of the occupied territories. Israel is now the first state in history to win a deferment of the periodical review of its human rights record. Tel Aviv has refused to send a delegation on Tuesday to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva for the Universal Periodic Review procedure where UN... 

Egyptian protestors clash with riot police during a demonstration near Cairo’s Tahrir Square on January 28, 2013. Egypt’s main opposition group, the National Salvation Front (NSF) has rejected an invitation by President Mohamed Morsi for talks, calling for massive protests on Friday. “We will not participate in dialogue that is empty of content,” leading dissident Mohamed ElBaradei said... 

The Islamic Republic of Iran has sent a monkey into space on a suborbital flight and returned it to Earth safely. On Monday, Iran launched the Kavoshgar Pishgam (Pioneer Discoverer) rocket, which took the primate to an altitude of 120 kilometers. “In this project, we are sending a live animal, a monkey, into space. This kind of monkey’s physiology is very similar to humans. We are [using]... 

An Iranian cancer patient who like millions of other patients with intractable diseases, is victim of anti-Iran sanctions imposed by US and EU to block financial transactions for the purchase of medications. Despite its claims of easing the restrictions on the sales of medicine to Iran, Washington has launched an investigation into the transactions of Switzerland’s biggest pharmaceutical company,... 

Protesters shout anti-regime slogans during a demonstration in Jordan’s capital Amman. Riots have spread across Jordan after the announcement of parliamentary election results which people in four provinces dispute. Violent clashes erupted on Thursday between police and protestors who accuse Jordan’s Independent Electoral Commission of vote-rigging, DPA reported. Police fired tear gas to disperse... 

30 people have been killed, including two policemen, and more than 300 injured during a riot in Egypt’s Port Said. The army has since been deployed, where a crowd attempted to storm a prison after death sentence’s were handed out for a past riot. The deadly assault follows the sentencing of 21 people to death for the riot and stampede in Port Said in which dozens were killed last February. As...