The bomber who blew up an Israeli tourist bus in Bulgaria in July, killing six people, had up to five foreign helpers locally and the attack was planned abroad, the interior minister said Thursday.

"The number of people who participated on Bulgarian territory is between three and five," Tsvetan Tsvetanov told the 24 Hours newspaper.

Iran could soon host a "national dialogue" in the region between all the parties to the Syrian conflict, a senior Iranian official said in media reports on Tuesday.

"Representatives of the (Syrian) government and all political and opposition groups will soon begin a national dialogue in a regional country, and possibly in Tehran," said Hossein Amir Abdollahian, deputy foreign minister for Arab affairs, quoted by the official IRNA news agency.

Canada's top diplomat blasted Iran for human rights violations and religious intolerance at a meeting Monday of world parliamentarians, drawing an angry response from Tehran's delegation.

Addressing 1,400 lawmakers at the gathering in Quebec City, Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird said Bahais and Christians in Iran were "consistently threatened with death and torture, simply for believing."

After days of cramming, two intense earlier debates, and a bitter months-long campaign, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney will come out swinging Monday in their third and final showdown.

With this rematch focusing on foreign policy, the president and his Republican rival will no doubt trade blows over security shortcomings in Libya; how to contain Iran; the roiling crisis in Syria; a rising China; and ending the Afghan war.

Iran's foreign ministry on Saturday rejected a guilty plea by an Iranian-American man that he conspired with Iranian officials to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington.

Manssor Arbabsiar pleaded guilty on Wednesday at the New York federal court to attempting to hire a Mexican drug gang for $1.5 million to blow up the Saudi envoy in a restaurant he frequented in Washington.

Twenty-four schoolgirls and two other people were killed when a bus overturned and crashed into a valley in the southwest of the country, Iranian media reported on Saturday.

Fourteen passengers survived the accident late on Friday on a road in Khuzestan province, Fars news agency said, adding that they were being treated in nearby hospitals.

Iran on Saturday condemned a car bombing in Beirut that killed eight people, including a top Lebanese security official, blaming it on arch foe Israel.

Tehran condemned "the terrorist blast which was carried out by those who aim to create division between different Lebanese groups that never serves the interests of Lebanon," spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said in a statement on the Foreign Ministry website.

The Saudi coastguard have arrested a group of Iranians who attempted to infiltrate the country by sea near the northeastern frontier with Kuwait, authorities said.

Seized were 14 Iranians who had been dropped off on shore by a boat and the driver of the boat, who was chased and captured by patrol boats as he headed out, Eastern Province coastguard spokesman Colonel Khaled al-Arqubi in a statement.

The BBC said Thursday its services in the Middle East and Europe were being deliberately jammed, along with those of other broadcasters -- with the interference coming from Syria.

The jamming of Eutelsat satellites affected BBC television and radio services in English and Arabic, the British Broadcasting Corporation said.

Iran will not give in to "bullying" at the negotiating table with world powers over its disputed nuclear program despite new economic sanctions, its supreme leader said on Tuesday.

The West "keeps saying pressure against Iran is aimed at forcing the Islamic republic to return to the negotiating table" about the nuclear program, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in remarks carried on state television.