Tehran  - Iran's government does not take military threats made by Israel seriously, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi said Monday.

"The global and regional situation and especially the confusion inside the Zionist regime (Israel) itself do not give military strikes any serious ground," he told reporters in Tehran.

Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said last month that Iran was still trying to acquire nuclear weapons and Israel and the world must make an effort to prevent it from doing so.

"This is just a form of psychological war," Ghashghavi said.

The spokesman added that Iran's armed forces were fully prepared to confront any military aggression against the nation.

Quito - Ecuador President Rafael Correa confirmed that he will make an official visit to Iran this week, to strengthen ties between the two oil-producing nations and to bolster bilateral trade and cooperation.

Correa vowed to work for "the maximum benefit of our people, and what is signed will be fulfilled," noting that he will lead a group of local businessman seeking opportunities in the Iranian market.

Tehran - Iran has once again warned that it would blockade the oil export route in the Persian Gulf if its nuclear sites were attacked, Iranian media reported Saturday.

"We are capable of blockading the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf and whoever does not believe this should ... see what happens in reality," Navy Commander Admiral Habibollah Sayari told IRNA news agency.

London, Nov. 28 : An Iranian-born journalist and author based in Europe has claimed that radical Islamists may be changing their tactics to inspire home-grown jihadists

Amir Taheri, the author of the book ''Holy Terror: Inside the World of Islamic Terrorism'', writes in the Telegraph that the perpetrators were trying to imitate the tactic of “Ghazwa”, used by the Prophet Mohamad against Meccan caravans during his decade-long campaign to seize control of the city.

He says that the Mumbai attacks differed from previous terror operations in India in a number of ways.

Tehran, Nov 28: Archeological discoveries, in the form of Stone Age artifacts on the Iranian Plateau, have proven that primitive man once passed through the region millions of years ago.

Artifacts dating back to the Stone Age have been found on these plateaus, helping experts retrace the steps of a tribe of primitive men that lived in the prehistoric period more than 2 million years ago and passed through the region on their way to other countries.

According to Hamed Vahdati, a member of the archeological society at Iran’s Cultural Heritage Center, primitive man originally emerged in East Africa, and intelligent man lived more than 90,000 to 100,000 years ago, proof of which has been found in South Africa and Palestine.

Vienna  - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei called on Syria Thursday to allow further inspections of the country's alleged nuclear programme.

In his statement before the IAEA board of governors, ElBaradei also urged Iran to clarify open questions on past studies that were possibly related to the development of nuclear weapons.