SEOUL, Feb. 1 (Yonhap) — A South Korean delegation of parliamentarians and businessmen arrived in Amman, Jordan, on Thursday to meet with Iraqi provincial government officials about joint oil development and other economic development projects for the war-torn country, Seoul officials said Thursday.

VIENNA (Reuters) – Iran has refused to let U.N. inspectors set up cameras at an underground plant where it is set to begin installing 3,000 centrifuges for full-scale enrichment of nuclear fuel, diplomats said on Friday.

The most recent fighting in the Gaza Strip, which has left many dead, confirms that the internal strife plaguing the Palestinian occupied territories since the rise of Hamas to power in January 2006

Local authorities clamped a total curfew on the Shiite holy city of Najaf in central Iraq on Friday to thwart attacks a day after 73 people died from twin suicide bombings in nearby Hilla.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has launched anniversary celebrations for Iran’s Islamic Revolution with a defiant promise to push ahead with the country’s controversial nuclear programme.

BAGHDAD — The Iraqi government Thursday invited Iran and Syria to Baghdad for talks next month on regional security, amid growing tension and accusations by the Bush administration of foreign meddling in Iraqi affairs.

Hezbollah crossed the international border and kidnapped two uniformed Israeli soldiers who have been held incognito since 12 July. Several more IDF soldiers were killed in the incident and its aftermath. Hezbollah fired more than 4,500 missiles

JERUSALEM (AP) – In seven hours of testimony and intense questioning, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Thursday defended his much-criticized actions during the war in Lebanon before a commission whose findings could determine his political fate.

A long-awaited National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, presented to President Bush by the intelligence community yesterday, outlines an increasingly perilous situation in which the United States has little control and there is a strong possibility of further deterioration, according to sources familiar with the document.

CAIRO. — German Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Saturday on means of reviving the Mideast peace process and boosting bilateral co-operation, Germany ambassador to Cairo Bernd Erbel said here yesterday.