WASHINGTON (AFP) – US President George W. Bush is to welcome Afghanistan’s leader Hamid Karzai to his Camp David retreat Sunday for talks expected to focus on the Taliban insurgency and mounting civilian casualties. The White House said they would discuss security and the US-led “war on terror” and “review …

GHAZNI, Afghanistan (Reuters) – Taliban insurgents said on Sunday there was still no agreement on where to hold direct talks with South Korean diplomats seeking the release of 21 of their countrymen kidnapped more than two weeks ago. A South Korean delegation was in Ghazni province, southwest of Kabul, where …

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is scheduled to leave Tehran for the Turkmen capital city of Ashgabat on a two-day visit starting on August 14.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- The Islamic Republic of Iran has exported 23,100 tons of dried tea to various world countries, customs department said.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- A major Turkish oil distributor says it has reached a joint venture deal to bid for oil and gas exploration contracts in Iran.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iran will build an oil refinery and petrochemical plant in Senegal and speed up plans to construct a car factory there, the West African country’s government said in a statement published on Friday.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will visit Turkey to discuss Ankara’s mounting concern about Kurdish separatism next week and then continue to Iran for security talks, an official said.

 TEHERAN (Fars News Agency)- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad criticized the US for its plan to increase weapons sales to several Arab countries and step up military aid to Israel, saying Washington was trying to impose its dominance on the Middle East.

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- US is projecting the responsibility of its failures on other actors in a bid to hide its actual intentions and policies on Iraq, an informed source said, viewing the United States’ instrumental approach towards Iraq’s issues as a suspicious game.

As of Friday, Aug. 3, 2007, at least 353 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures July 28, 2007.