Middle Orient

TEHRAN (FNA) The head of the UN nuclear watchdog will arrive Friday in Tehran on a two-day visit to discuss Iran’s nuclear program.

TEHRAN (FNA) A visiting delegation of Iranian police officials conferred with their Omani counterparts about several key issues in an official session in Masqat on Sunday, where the two sides discussed enhanced cooperation.

TEHRAN (FNA) Iran is to shake up its system of interest rates to take more account of rising inflation, officials said Sunday.

TEHRAN (FNA) Iran’s former nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said in Damascus on Sunday that his country makes all efforts to help the Lebanese groups reach a consensus.

BAGHDAD – Two suicide bombers struck in a Sunni Arab district of Baghdad on Monday, killing at least 14 people including the leader of a U.S.-backed neighborhood security patrol, police said.

LONDON – HarperCollins will rush out a book submitted by former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto just days before her December 27 assassination, it said on Monday.

BAIJI, Iraq – Firefighters have succeeded in bringing a blaze at Iraq’s largest oil refinery in Baiji under control, an engineer at the refinery said.

BAIJI, Iraq – Iraq’s largest oil refinery was continuing to operate on Monday despite a fire that destroyed its liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) unit, an engineer at the facility told Reuters.

JERUSALEM – Israeli and Palestinian negotiators struggled on Monday to get U.S.-sponsored peace talks, stalled by disputes over Jewish settlements, on course before a visit by President George W. Bush.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan – Al Qaeda-linked militants in northwest Pakistan have attacked two offices of a government-sponsored peace movement and killed eight people, the military said on Monday.