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.

Afghanistan’s Taliban was holding out for a neutral venue for talks with South Korea over the fate of 21 hostages they are threatening to kill.

SEOUL (Reuters) – The South Korean government has told Taliban insurgents holding 21 Koreans there is a limit to what it can do to resolve the hostage standoff that has stretched into a third week, an official said on Friday.

GHAZNI, Afghanistan – The Taliban sought guarantees of safety from the U.N. mission in Afghanistan for possible hostage talks with South Korean officials in government-controlled territory, a purported spokesman for the militants said Friday.

Retired Bosnian Serb General Zdravko Tolimir, who was recently captured and sent to The Hague war crimes tribunal for alleged involvement in the 1995 Srebrenica massacre, refused to attend a court session Wednesday (August 1st) regarding his health, claiming he was “in excellent condition”.

Former chief of the Turkish General Staff General Hilmi Ozkok said on Wednesday (August 1st) that any decision on launching military operations in northern Iraq depends on the government.