Reuters, Moscow
A possible meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump at an APEC summit in Vietnam later this month is being discussed, the Kremlin said on Friday. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call Moscow did not rule out such a meeting taking place.
Iraqi forces enter Al-Qaim
AFP, Habbaniyah
Iraqi forces on Friday entered Al-Qaim, the main town in the Islamic State group’s last bastion in the country, military commanders said.
Early Friday morning, Iraqi forces unleashed a barrage of artillery fire against jihadist positions inside the town, backed by Iraqi and US-led coalition air strikes. Troops from the army and the elite Counter Terrorism Service “have started the assault on the centre of Al-Qaim,” Staff Major General Noman Abed al- Zobai, the commander of the 7th Division, told AFP from the scene.
Merkel believes parties can bridge gap
Reuters, Berlin
Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday she believes the three party groups trying to form a new German coalition government face more difficult talks but she believes they can bridge their differences.
“I still think we can tie the ends together,” she told reporters ahead of fresh talks on the three-way coalition of her conservatives, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) and the ecologist Greens. The alliance is untested at national level.
EU calls on Malta to find journalist’s ‘barbarous’ killers
Reuters, Brussels
The EU executive called on Malta to find the “barbarous” assassins of a journalist being buried on Friday and resolve “potential structural problems” with the rule of law on the island. Daphne Caruana Galizia, Malta’s best-known investigative journalist, was killed last month when a powerful bomb blew up her car, in a case that stunned the small Mediterranean island.
2 troops, militant killed in Kashmir
Xinhua, Srinagar
Two Indian army troops and a militant were killed in an overnight gunfight in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, police said Friday.
The gunfight broke out late Thursday evening after contingents of troops and police cordoned off village Samboora in Pulwama district, 28 km south of Srinagar city, the summer capital of Indian-controlled Kashmir.
UN, Colombia sign anti-cocaine pact
AFP, Vienna
The UN and Bogota signed a major pact Friday to uproot Colombia’s booming cocaine business, as part of ongoing peace efforts between the government and drug trade-controlling rebels.
The deal worth $315 million dollars (270 million euros) aims to wean farmers off growing coca-the raw material for cocaine-by replacing it with safer crops like coffee and cacao.
