South Korea's navy has launched a salvage operation in the Yellow Sea to retrieve debris from North Korea's long-range rocket launch, military officials said Thursday.

The first stage of the North's Unha-3 rocket launched on Wednesday fell in the sea off the Korean peninsula, while the second splashed down east of the Philippines.

Lebanon met the required costs to Turkish power company Karadeniz after a long delay, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Thursday, pointing out that the first power-generating vessel is expected to arrive in April.

According to the daily, the Finance Ministry transferred the money to Electricite du Liban on November 7, which in turn transferred the cost of acquiring the two ships to the Turkish company on Wednesday after procedures with the Central Bank ended.

Japan scrambled eight fighter jets on Thursday after a Chinese state-owned plane breached its airspace for the first time, over islands at the center of a dispute between Tokyo and Beijing.

It was the first incursion by a Chinese state aircraft into Japanese airspace anywhere since the country's military began monitoring in 1958, the defense ministry said.

A team from the U.N. atomic watchdog led by chief inspector Herman Nackaerts arrived early Thursday for talks with nuclear officials on Iran's controversial nuclear program, ISNA news agency reported.

The International Atomic Energy Agency says the aim of the talks is to sign an agreement on a "structured approach" giving IAEA inspectors broader access to sites, including the Parchin military site, and people working in Iran's nuclear program.

The Interpol will not deal with the Syrian arrest warrants against former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, al-Mustaqbal MP Oqab Saqr and Syrian opposition member Louay al-Meqdad in line with its constitution and rules, al-Mustaqbal newspaper reported on Thursday.

According to a memo sent by the Interpol to its offices in the Arab countries, the organization decided not to keep the arrest warrants in its database and will not cooperate with them based on its regulations as “it is strictly forbidden for the organization to undertake any intervention or activities of political, military, religious or racial character.”

President Michel Suleiman informed Interior Minister Marwan Charbel that he should continue his preparations for the 2013 parliamentary elections irrespective of vacancies in several posts, An Nahar daily reported on Thursday.

The newspaper quoted Charbel as telling a cabinet session held at Baabda palace on Wednesday that the government was yet to appoint governors and directors of several departments in the interior ministry - posts necessary to prepare for the polls.

Social media like Facebook and Twitter have become important elements in political and social discourse in Lebanon with 34 percent of Lebanese saying they use social networking sites to share their views, a survey showed Thursday.

Among the social network participants in Lebanon, 68 percent said they shared views on politics, 81 percent on community issues and 8 percent on religion, a 21-nation survey made by the Pew Research Center found.

Georgia expressed disappointment Wednesday after its latest round of U.N.-mediated talks with Russia, blaming Moscow for blocking discussions on people displaced during the countries' brief war in 2008.

"I have to say we are deeply disappointed that our counterparts did not approach this meeting in good faith," Georgian Deputy Foreign Minister Nikoloz Vashakidze told reporters in Geneva.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta conferred with commanders in Afghanistan on Wednesday on how many American troops should remain in the country after most combat forces withdraw in 2014.

Panetta's unannounced visit comes as President Barack Obama moves to wind down the unpopular 11-year war, weighing the pace of a troop withdrawal and a future follow-on force after the NATO-led mission is due to end.

Four Libyan policemen were wounded on Wednesday when a bomb exploded in front of their station in the eastern city of Benghazi, security sources said.

"The blast coincided with a traffic police vehicle passing in front of Al-Fwihet station," police officer Adel Jibril told Agence France Presse.