Agence France Presse  - French President Jacques Chirac, due here Wednesday on a two-day visit, told Egyptian daily Al-Ahram that it was "unacceptable" for Iran to have nuclear weapons, and called for "necessary gestures" from Israel and the Palestinians for "real negotiations" to resume.

The Iranian nuclear problem and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be high on the agenda when Chirac meets Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Wednesday.

The Iranian leaders "must understand that, for the international community, the prospect of a militarily nuclearized Iran is unacceptable," Chirac said in an interview.

Marie Colvin, Michael Smith and Sarah Baxter

The Sunday Times - Iran has formed battalions of suicide bombers to strike at British and American targets if the nation's nuclear sites are attacked. According to Iranian officials, 40,000 trained suicide bombers are ready for action.

The main force, named the Special Unit of Martyr Seekers in the Revolutionary Guards, was first seen last month when members marched in a military parade, dressed in olive-green uniforms with explosive packs around their waists and detonators held high.

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI

The Associated Press - The president of Iran again lashed out at Israel on Friday and said it was "heading toward annihilation," just days after Tehran raised fears about its nuclear activities by saying it successfully enriched uranium for the first time.

The Associated Press, Geneva - A Swiss investigator has issued an international arrest warrant for a former Iranian minister for his alleged involvement in the slaying of an exiled Iranian opposition leader, a Swiss newspaper reported today.

Le Matin Dimanche reproduced part of the document in which Jacques Antenen, an investigative magistrate in the Swiss canton (state) of Vaud, requested Swiss federal authorities to demand the arrest of Ali Fallahian, Tehran's hard-line former intelligence minister.

swissinfo - A Swiss judge has issued an arrest warrant for the former head of Iran's secret police for his role in the killing of a leading Iranian dissident 16 years ago.
 
Ali Fallahian is charged with masterminding the assassination of Kazem Rajavi, a renowned human rights advocate, near Geneva in April 1990.

by Sam Dagher

Agence France Presse - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak warned Saturday Iraq was in the middle of a civil war that threatened the Middle East and expressed alarm about Shiite Iran's influence in the Arab world.
 
"There is effectively a civil war underway now (in Iraq)," Mubarak told the satellite news channel Al-Arabiya.

NCRI - In an interview with the London Based Al-Hayyat Arab daily, Florida Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and the Chair of the House Subcommittee on Mid-East and Asia Affairs said the US Congress considers threats by Iranian regime to be very serious now.

She said that the absolute majority-vote in the US congress in support of the Iran Freedom Act and the statement by 355 representatives from both parties in the Congress indicate that both Republicans and Democrats consider Iranian regime as a serious threat. The US congresswoman added that this was a new development among US representatives considering Iran as an extra-ordinary threat.

NCRI - State television in Iran showed the test-fire of a new missile on Friday claiming to be capable of avoiding radar detection and striking a number of targets simultaneously.

Hossein Salami, a Revolutionary Guards Commander told the network: "Today we have successfully tested a new-generation of missiles capable of hitting different targets at the same time."

Agence France Presse - The commander of US forces in the Middle East, General John Abizaid, said in an interview with AFP Tuesday that Iranian intelligence agents were operating inside Iraq.
 
"There are clearly Iranian intelligence agents operating inside Iraq and Iranian-produced explosives have found their way across the border," Abizaid told AFP in Amman.