Kim to visit Seoul ‘soon’
AP, Seoul
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un will visit Seoul “soon”, the South’s President Moon Jae-in said Thursday, amid a rapid diplomatic thaw on the peninsula despite stalled nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington.
At their third summit in Pyongyang in September, the leaders of the two Koreas agreed Kim would visit Seoul “in the near future” without giving a specific date.
Europe torn over IS children in Syria
Reuters, Antwerp
For years, they heard little from daughters who went to join Islamic State. Now dozens of families across Europe have received messages from those same women, desperate to return home from detention in Syria.
They are among 650 Europeans, many of them infants, held by U.S.-backed Kurdish militias in three camps since IS was routed last year, according to Kurdish sources. Unwanted by their Kurdish guards, they are also a headache for officials in Europe.
Christian woman acquitted in Pakistan to leave country
AP, Islamabad
A Christian woman acquitted in Pakistan after eight years on death row for blasphemy plans to leave the country, her family said Thursday as radical Islamists mounted rallies for a second day against the verdict, blocking roads and burning tires in protest.
The developments followed a landmark move by Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Wednesday that overturned the 2010 conviction against Asia Bibi for insulting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. The charge of blasphemy carries the death penalty in this majority Muslim nation.
Woman survives six days in Arizona desert
Reuters, Arizona
A 53-year-old woman survived six days in the Arizona desert on grass and water after crashing her car, before being rescued by a rancher and highway workers who were chasing a cow, police and local media said on Wednesday.
The woman, whose name was not disclosed, lost control of her car on Oct. 12 on a rain-slicked road near Wickenburg, Arizona, about 65 miles (105 km) north of Phoenix, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
Deal on Brexit is possible by Nov 21: Irish FM
Reuters, Paris
A deal on Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union is possible by November 21, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said on Wednesday, but it will require British negotiators in particular to step up efforts.
Asked whether he agreed with UK Brexit Minister Dominic Raab that a deal could be reached by that date, Coveney concurred, but said time was short and negotiators would have to signal the likelihood of a deal as early as next week.
