Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Apr. 17 – Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki arrived in Ankara on Tuesday where he will hold talks with Turkish officials on Iran-Turkey bilateral relations, state radio reported.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Apr. 17 – A senior Iranian prison official has been appointed the warden of Iran’s most notorious prison Evin.

AFP: Iran has dismissed claims that the US embassy in Tehran will be sold to pay for damages awarded to an Iranian over his capture 15 years ago by US agents, the media reported on Monday.

AFP: The United States has no plans to attack Iran and its beefed-up naval presence in the Gulf region is meant to keep the area peaceful, the chief of US naval operations said Monday.

AFP: US Defence Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Jordan on Monday at the start of a Middle East tour which American officials said is aimed at countering Iran’s growing influence in the region.

AFP: Britain’s Defence Secretary Des Browne, facing calls for his resignation, apologised in parliament Monday for a decision to allow 15 sailors captured by Iran to sell their stories.

Reuters: The United States has sought information for the third time in a month from Tehran about the whereabouts of a missing former FBI agent believed to be in Iran, the State Department said on Monday.

AKI: Most schools in northwestern Iran remained closed on Monday due to a teachers’ strike to protest against the arrest of dozens of their colleagues in the past few days. The two-day protest which started Sunday was almost unanimous in the northwestern Kurdish cities of Sagghez, Marivan, Sanandaj and Bukan.