Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he would be ready to help the United States in solving global problems, the official news agency IRNA reported Friday.

In a meeting with the new Swiss ambassador to Tehran, Ahmadinejad said that Iran would welcome "real changes" by the new US administration of President Barack Obama, however, under the condition that the atmosphere of bilateral relations would be based on respect and equality.

Tehran - Iran denied entry visas for a US women's badminton team which was scheduled to come to Iran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi said Wednesday.

The spokesman argued that the lengthy visa procedure made it impossible for the team to come to Tehran for a February tournament.

A crush of photographers and TV crews on Tuesday night rushed to the IKIA airport outside Tehran to cover the team's arrival via Dubai but were told by officials about the cancellation.

Tehran  - Iran launched into orbit its first domestically produced satellite Tuesday morning, the official news agency IRNA reported.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered the launching of the satellite called Omid, or Hope, on a domestically produced Safir 2 rocket, IRNA said.

The launch, also shown on Iranian state television, was made on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Tehran - A settlement of the Iranian nuclear dispute would be feasible if the issue were tackled "correctly" and the United States clarified its new position, Iran's parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said Monday.

"Instead of coming up with preconditions, they (world powers) should resume the talks and clearly articulate their concerns so that we can find was to settle them," he told reporters in Tehran.

Tehran  - Iran on Sunday celebrated the 30th anniversary of the 1979 revolution by paying tribute to the late supreme leader and architect of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

At the beginning of the festivities, which were this year held one day earlier due to the Persian leap year, current supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei visited the shrine of his predecessor as well as the graves of martyrs of the Islamic revolution and the 1980-88 war against Iraq.

Tehran  - Iran's top and popular football star, Ali Karimi, is on the verge of dismissal from his club Persepolis Tehran after voicing renewed criticism of the country's sports officials, local media reported Saturday.

The former Bayern Munich midfielder was dismissed last year from the national team after harshly criticizing the Iranian Football Federation (FFI) and describing its current formation as the weakest in his ten-year spell in the national team, bringing Iranian football backwards rather than forward.