AFP, Tehran
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin welcomed the “Syrian army’s victory against the terrorists in Aleppo” during a late-night phone call, Iranian media reported on Sunday.
“The Syrian army’s victory sends a message that the terrorists cannot achieve their objectives. We must stop terrorists using the ceasefire to rebuild their forces and create new bases in other regions of Syria,” Rouhani said following the call on Saturday night, according to a statement published by state media.
Pakistan frees 220 Indian fishermen
AFP, Karachi
Pakistan on Sunday released 220 Indian fishermen held for trespassing into its territorial waters as a “goodwill gesture” to its nuclear-armed rival India, officials said.
“We released 220 Indian fishermen today as a goodwill gesture,” Deputy Superintendent of Karachi’s Malir prison Hassan Sehto told AFP, adding that 219 others still remain in Pakistani custody.
French aid worker kidnapped in Mali
AFP, Paris
A Frenchwoman who runs an aid group has been kidnapped in Mali’s restive north, the French foreign ministry confirmed on Sunday.
Sophie Petronin was abducted in the city of Gao on Saturday, the ministry said, adding that French and Malian authorities were working together “to find and free our compatriot as quickly as possible”.
2 terror suspects shoot dead in Indonesia
AFP, Jakarta
Indonesian police Sunday shot dead two terror suspects and arrested two more, only days after foiling separate plans by an IS-linked group for a Christmas-time suicide bombing near the capital.
The pair were fatally shot at a house in Purwakarta 100 kilometres (62 miles) east of the capital Jakarta after allegedly resisting arrest.
“We ordered them to surrender and even fired warning shots, but they resisted and started to attack our officers with machetes, so we had to take them down,” national police spokesman Awi Setiyono told AFP.
