Tel Aviv - An Israeli resident of Argentina has been charged with attempting to spy on the Jewish

Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday blamed Arab leaders for not showing sufficient support for the Palestinians over the conflict on the Gaza Strip.

"The Arab League should face its responsibility" Ahmadinejad told reporters in a press conference in Tehran.

"If they (Arab leaders) have differences, today is not the day to deal with them but today is the day to fulfil their Islamic duties as every day of hesitation means the killing of more innocent people in Gaza," the president said.

Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday that Tehran would be patient with the incoming US president Barack Obama.

"If the changes (as proclaimed by Obama) were real and the new approach was based on respect and friendship, then we would welcome it," Ahmadinejad said at a press conference in Tehran.

"We have time and enough patience and will wait and see," he added.

Ahmadinejad ruled out the carrot-and-stick tactic as a worn-out policy and said the US should stop its hostile approach towards Iran.

Tehran - Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said Thursday that a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip was possible, official news agency IRNA reported.

"Some countries have changed their approach and have now a better understanding of the issue which makes us approaching ceasefire in Gaza," Larijani said after returning to Tehran from am emergency meeting of the Islamic Inter-Parliamentary Union (IIPU) in Turkey.

"There is room for optimism," the speaker said.

Tehran  - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday that the United Nations and its Security Council have lost credit over the crisis in Gaza Strip.

"After more than two weeks, the UN Security Council has finally issued a resolution, which is however vague from the beginning to the end," Ahmadinejad said at a religious ceremony in Tehran, referring to the latest UN resolution calling on an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

New York, Jan. 10 : Ten international banks, including British-based Lloyds laundered "billions of dollars" for Iran through New York banks, Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau announced Friday.

According to a report in the New York Daily News, the scheme helped Iran turn its dirty money into greenbacks, which it could then use to buy goods prohibited by international sanctions.

Some of the money went to fund terrorist groups like the Hamas and Hezbollah, and to help Iran get materials, including tungsten, for long-range missiles, sources said.