TEHRAN, Oct 20, 2007 (AFP) - Iran, OPEC's number-two exporter, hit out Saturday at the recent hike in oil prices, saying real prices were far lower than the 90-dollar-a-barrel level of last week.

'Oil is still cheap,' acting Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said in an interview with the Iran newspaper.

'The sweet taste of oil is not tangible because it is very far from the range that is expected by us (Iran and OPEC),' Nozari said.

DUBLIN, Sept 26, 2007 (AFP) - Irish Foreign Minister Dermot Ahern condemned as 'unacceptable and deeply shocking' the crackdown on protestors Wednesday by the military junta in Myanmar.

Ahern called for all countries, in particular China and India who he says have influence with the junta, to condemn the use of force against unarmed civilians, demonstrating peacefully.

WASHINGTON, Sept 13, 2007 (AFP) - The Pentagon said the assassination Thursday of a leading Sunni sheikh in al-Anbar province was a 'tragic loss' but expressed hope the movement he led against Al-Al Qaeda will survive him.

Sheikh Sattar Abu Reesha was killed by a roadside bomb that struck his convoy in the provincial capital of Ramadi at the start of Ramadan, police said.

'Despite the tragic loss of Sheikh Sattar, he has ignited a movement that will outlive him,' said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell.

GENEVA, Sept 7, 2007 (AFP) - Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Friday paid tribute to Luciano Pavarotti, saying the late Italian tenor never let stardom 'numb his sensitivity to needs of others.'

'I am shocked and saddened by Luciano Pavarotti's sudden death. He had enormous warmth and generosity of sprit,' said Annan, who presided over the United Nations when Pavarotti led several charity performances.

'Pavarotti served as UN Messenger of Peace, sparing no effort to raise support for those less fortunate than himself,' he added in a statement.

LONDON, Sept 6, 2007 (AFP) - U2 singer Bono, who duetted with Luciano Pavarotti on a single about the plight of the Bosnian people, hailed the late Italian tenor Thursday as 'a great volcano of a man who sang fire'.

He also revealed that the Irish band had a nickname for the huge opera legend -- the Pavlova.

'Some can sing opera, Luciano Pavarotti was an opera. No one could inhabit those acrobatic melodies and words like him,' Bono said in a statement on U2's website after Pavarotti died at his home in northern Italy overnight.

WASHINGTON, Aug 7, 2007 (AFP) - Washington said Tuesday it would consider London's request to release five British-linked inmates from the Guantanamo Bay 'war on terror' prison camp.

It would also consider any British requests to repatriate other such inmates, the State Department said.

New British Foreign Secretary David Miliband wrote to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice seeking the return of the five, who are not British nationals but who lived in Britain before their detention at the camp in Cuba.

WASHINGTON, Aug 7, 2007 (AFP) - The United States said Tuesday it would consider a request from London for the release of five British-linked inmates from the Guantanamo Bay 'war on terror' prison camp.

It would also consider any British requests to repatriate more such inmates, the State Department said.

New British Foreign Secretary David Miliband wrote to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice seeking the return of the five, who are not British citizens but who lived in Britain before their detention in the camp in Cuba.

JOHANNESBURG, Aug 6, 2007 (AFP) - Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Monday slammed Zimbabwe for passing a controversial law allowing the government to monitor phone calls, faxes and emails.

'Zimbabwe had already given itself one of the world's most repressive legislative arsenals as regards press freedom. Now all forms of communication have been placed under surveillance,' the Paris-based body said in a statement.

NEW DELHI, Aug 3, 2007 (AFP) - India's main opposition Hindu nationalists dismissed the Indo-US nuclear deal as 'unsatisfactory' just hours after the text was unveiled Friday.

Communists, key allies of the ruling Congress party, reserved their reaction to the landmark civilian nuclear agreement.

But J.P. Mathur, senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), whose last government carried out nuclear tests in 1998, told AFP: 'It is an unsatisfactory deal.

'Washington could pull out of the deal if India tested a nuclear device,' he said.

BRUSSELS, Aug 2, 2007 (AFP) - The European Commission, concerned by a gas dispute between Russia and major transit country Belarus, on Thursday called for a meeting next week of the EU's gas coordination group.

'The Commission believes that a safe and undisturbed supply of energy is of key importance for Europe's economy,' the EU's executive arm said in a statement.

'Energy supply disputes in the EU's direct neighbourhood are therefore of serious concern to the European Commission.'