AP - Iran's president intervened to secure the release of Sarah Shourd, one of three Americans jailed for more than 13 months, in part because of her gender, a news agency reported Friday.

AFP - US President Barack Obama called Friday on Israel to extend a freeze on settlements as he pledged a never-say-die approach to the new Middle East peace talks, calling the effort "a risk worth taking."

AP - The American Embassy spokesman in Iraq says the United States and Iraq have signed an agreement to settle claims of Americans who say they were abused by Saddam Hussein's regime.

AP - President Barack Obama pledged Friday to help keep fast-track Mideast peace talks from breaking down, and said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas knows "the window for creating a Palestinian state is closing."

AP - Obama says 'we are not at war against Islam,' but against terrorist factions.

AFP - The British Museum on Friday loaned Iran an ancient terracotta document called the Cyrus Cylinder, after a row in which Iran said it had cut ties with the institution, a senior official said.

AFP - US President Barack Obama said Friday that talks between Israel and the Palestinians here last week "exceeded expectations" and vowed to stand with both sides in peace moves.

AFP - Iran will free on Saturday a female US hiker detained in the Islamic republic for more than a year for alleged spying and illegally entering the country, the Mehr news agency and an official said.

AFP - The United States is pushing a new power-sharing deal in Iraq that could solve the political deadlock by retaining Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki but curbing his power, a report said Friday.

AFP - EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, under fire for not attending Israeli-Palestinian talks last week, on Friday said her decision in no way reflected a priority shift for the 27-nation bloc.

AP - A Babylonian artifact sometimes described as the world's first human rights charter is to go on display in Iran after the government threatened to cut ties with the British Museum if it did not loan the object.

Reuters - Iran said Friday it had no covert uranium enrichment facility after a dissident group claimed it had evidence of a new secret underground atomic site in the Islamic state, a news agency reported.

AFP - Iran's delaying the stoning to death of a woman for adultery appears to underscore reticence by Muslim governments to brook local and international opinion to carry out such terrifying executions.

AP - Iran is denying an opposition group's claim that it is building a secret nuclear facility west of the capital.

AFP - Iran on Friday denied claims by opposition groups that it was secretly building a new uranium enrichment site deep in the mountains northwest of the capital.