Reuters: Iran could hit back at Israel with missiles if the Jewish state attacked it and could also rely on allies in the region to strike, the commander of the Islamic Republic's Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 27 – Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused Israel on Tuesday of creating new diseases to make money from pharmaceutical products that cure them, state media reported.

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Aug. 26 – Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday appointed Brigadier General Ahmad-Reza Pourdastan as the new commander of the Islamic Republic's regular army ground forces.

AP: Syria's President Bashar Assad has publicly stepped up his outreach to old ally Russia in recent days, seeking aid to build up Syrian military forces and offering Moscow help in return — in an apparent effort to exploit a new Russian-American rift.

AFP: Wracked by drought, Iran has turned to the United States for wheat for the first time in 27 years, marking a setback for Tehran's search for agricultural self-sufficiency.

AFP: Senior government officials from Iran and Nigeria opened talks on Tuesday aimed at boosting ties between the two oil producing nations.

AFP: Iran will conduct DNA identification of bodies recovered from a passenger jet that crashed after take-off from Kyrgyzstan's capital Bishkek, killing 65 people, Kyrgyz health ministry officials told AFP Tuesday.