KABUL – In a new effort to end the growing Taliban insurgency, a council of Afghan political and tribal leaders hopes to hold talks with elements of the Islamic group aimed at including them in the government.

KABUL – Suicide bombers attacked a luxury hotel in the Afghan capital Kabul on Monday, killing at least two guards, a police official said.

MADRID – Turkey’s government may seek an extension of its parliamentary mandate to attack Kurdish rebel targets in northern Iraq when the current authorization expires in October, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday.

ANKARA – Turkey plans to liberalize its media sector, allowing foreigners to own up to 50 percent of broadcasters instead of the current 25 percent, according to a draft law prepared by media watchdog RTUK and obtained by Reuters on Monday.

BELGRADE – The Serbian government has adopted a secret plan to implement “in case of a unilateral declaration of independence” by the Albanian majority of the breakaway Kosovo province, it said on Monday.

MOSCOW – Russia announced on Monday it will not issue new entry visas to staff working in the British government’s cultural offices in two regions, sharpening a row that has soured already-poor relations.

KABUL – Detained Taliban suspects, some held for years by the U.S. military in Afghanistan, were able to speak to family members by video link on Monday.

TEHRAN (FNA) The US president is striving to hide the thick file of his administration’s failures, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Mohammad Ali Hosseini said in the wake of the recent statements made by US President George Bush against Iran.

TEHRAN (FNA) Iran are Morocco are decisive to bolster cooperation in the tourism sector, an Iranian tourism official said here on Monday.

TEHRAN (FNA) Proposed by foreign minister and approved by the president, Asghar Ebrahimi Asl was assigned as the Islamic Republic of Iran’s ambassador to South Africa.