By Terje Solsvik and Johan Ahlander

OSLO/STOCKHOLM, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Norwegian police are investigating two high-profile diplomats in a corruption probe announced on Monday, part of a widening scandal in the Nordic country and across Europe over prominent figures' ties to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Mona Juul, who resigned from her post as ambassador to Jordan and Iraq on Sunday, is suspected of gross corruption while her husband, former government minister Terje Roed-Larsen, is suspected of complicity in gross corruption, police said.

Feb 9, (Reuters) - Israel has taken steps to help settlers acquire land in the occupied West Bank and widen its powers in parts of the territory where Palestinians have some self-rule - measures they said aimed to undermine the two-state solution.

It marks the latest blow to the idea of establishing a Palestinian state co-existing peacefully alongside Israel in territory Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. Long backed by world powers, this vision formed the bedrock of the U.S.-backed peace process ushered in by the 1993 Oslo Accords.

By Ali Sawafta and Emily Rose

RAMALLAH/JERUSALEM, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates led regional states on Monday in condemning Israel's move to ease settlement expansion and widen its powers in the West Bank, a step critics said went in the direction of annexing occupied land.

Sunday's decisions by Israel's security cabinet will make it easier for Jewish settlers to buy land in the West Bank and give Israeli authorities more power to act in areas supposedly under full Palestinian control, two senior Israeli ministers said.

By Eltayeb Siddig

NEAR AL-OBEID, Sudan, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Gubara al-Basheer and his family used to traverse Sudan's desert with their camels and livestock, moving freely between markets, water sources, and green pastures.

But since war erupted in 2023, he and other Arab nomads have been stuck in the desert outside the central Sudanese city of al-Obeid, threatened by marauding bandits and ethnic tensions.

Israel's military said Monday it had killed four armed militants who emerged from a tunnel in southern Gaza and attacked its troops, accusing the suspects of a "blatant violation" of the ceasefire.

Despite a US-brokered truce that entered its second phase last month, violence has continued in the Palestinian territory, with Israel and Hamas trading accusations.

Gaza's health officials said that six people were killed on Monday by Israeli fire in several incidents separate to the one in Rafah, including four killed in an air strike on an apartment in Gaza City.

Iran stepped up its crackdown on Monday after recent protests, making more arrests while holding the door open to Washington for further nuclear negotiations.

The arrests -- including that of Javad Emam, the spokesperson for the main reformist coalition -- came after Iranian and US officials held talks in Oman that both sides painted as positive.

On Saturday, Iran heaped more jail time on Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, and on Monday arrested Hossein Karoubi, the son of prominent dissident Mehdi Karoubi.

LONDON, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Britain's Prince William and his wife Kate said on Monday they were deeply concerned by the revelations in the Jeffrey Epstein files amid further damning disclosures about the heir-to-the-throne's uncle Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

Mountbatten-Windsor, the younger brother of King Charles who had already been cast out of the royal inner circle over his close relationship with Epstein, has faced fresh scrutiny since the recent publication of millions of new documents relating to the late convicted U.S. sex offender.

DUBAI, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Ali Larijani, an adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and secretary of its national security council, will visit Oman on Tuesday following indirect U.S.-Iranian talks there, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

U.S. and Iranian diplomats engaged through Omani mediation in the Gulf Arab state last week in an effort to revive diplomacy amid a U.S. naval buildup near Iran and Tehran's vows of a harsh response if attacked.

By Lucy Papachristou

TBILISI, Feb 9 (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President JD Vance will visit Armenia and Azerbaijan this week to push a Washington-brokered peace agreement that could transform energy and trade routes in the strategic South Caucasus region.

His two-day trip to Armenia, which begins later on Monday, comes just six months after the Armenian and Azerbaijani leaders signed an agreement at the White House seen as the first step towards peace after nearly 40 years of war.

LONDON, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Britain's Prince William will meet Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a three-day visit to Saudi Arabia starting on Monday, an official trip on behalf of the government to deepen ties with the country.

The royal's visit follows a 2025 trip to Saudi by Britain's finance minister, which London said had unlocked trade and investment agreements worth 6.4 billion pounds ($8.71 billion).