By Johan Ahlander and Terje Solsvik

STOCKHOLM, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Norway has been rocked by the release of millions of documents linked to Jeffrey Epstein and indicating that leading politicians and top diplomats had extensive contact with the U.S. sex offender who died by suicide in 2019.

Norway's parliament has appointed a rare external inquiry into the foreign ministry's link to Epstein and there are police investigations of a diplomat couple and a former prime minister, while the World Economic Forum has started an independent investigation of its Norwegian CEO.

DAMASCUS, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Owning a copy of Sayyid Qutb's "Milestones" could land you in jail or worse in Syria when the Assads ruled. But at a Damascus book fair this month, the title by the radical Islamist ideologue was on prominent display and selling well.

Held for the first time since Bashar al-Assad was ousted, this year's Damascus International Book Fair reflects deep changes in Syria since its nominally secular order was overthrown by Islamist rebels led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa.

ISLAMABAD, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will attend the first meeting of U.S. President Donald Trump's "Board of Peace" next week in Washington, the country's foreign office said on Thursday.

Under Trump's Gaza plan, the board was meant to supervise Gaza's temporary governance. Trump thereafter said the board, with him as chair, would be expanded to tackle global conflicts.

The first meeting is scheduled for February 19.

By Miranda Murray

BERLIN, Feb 12 (Reuters) - German director Wim Wenders said on Thursday filmmakers must stay out of politics and focus on changing how people think, at the start of the Berlin Film Festival.

Considered more politically minded than its counterparts in Venice and Cannes, the festival has been repeatedly criticised by pro-Palestinian activists for not taking an overt stance on Gaza, in contrast to the war in Ukraine and the situation in Iran.

HANOI, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Vietnam's top leader, To Lam, plans to travel to the United States next week to attend the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace, the initiative launched by U.S. President Donald Trump to address global conflicts, according to two people briefed on the matter and a document reviewed by Reuters.

Feb 12 (Reuters) - The United States and Iran are showing flexibility on a nuclear deal, with Washington appearing "willing" to tolerate some nuclear enrichment, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told the Financial Times in an interview published Thursday.

“It is positive that the Americans appear willing to tolerate Iranian enrichment within clearly set boundaries," Fidan, who has been involved in talks with both Washington and Tehran, told the FT.

Antisemitism in Australia is "frightening" but most people want good relations, Israel's President Isaac Herzog said on Thursday as he wrapped up a four-day visit and was met by protests in the city of Melbourne.

Herzog's tightly policed visit to Australia this week was meant to offer consolation to the country's Jewish community following the mass shooting on Bondi Beach that killed 15 people in December.

By Alasdair Pal

SYDNEY, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Pro-Palestine protesters will rally in Melbourne on Thursday on the final day of Israeli President Isaac Herzog's trip to Australia, following protests in the capital Canberra and violent clashes between protesters and police in Sydney.

Herzog is visiting Australia this week following an invitation from Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in the aftermath of the December 14 shooting at a Hanukkah event at Sydney's Bondi Beach that killed 15.

What began as an ordinary shift for Jerusalem bus driver Fakhri Khatib ended hours later in tragedy.

A chaotic spiral of events, symptomatic of a surge in racist violence targeting Arab bus drivers in Israel, led to the death of a teenager, Khatib's arrest and calls for him to be charged with aggravated murder.

His case is an extreme one, but it sheds light on a trend bus drivers have been grappling with for years, with a union counting scores of assaults in Jerusalem alone and advocates lamenting what they describe as an anaemic police response.

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON, Feb 11 (Reuters) - Israel will join U.S. President Donald Trump's "Board of Peace" initiative, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday during his visit to Washington where he met Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

After meeting Rubio on Wednesday, Netanyahu posted on X that he "signed Israel's accession as a member of the "Board of Peace.""

Netanyahu was in Washington to discuss Iran with Trump.