AFP, Jerusalem
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Russia on Wednesday for talks with President Vladimir Putin that had been scheduled for this week, the Israeli government said.
It gave no further details in its Thursday evening statement, but Netanyahu’s office said earlier this month that the two men planned to discuss Iranian military activity in Syria.
Germany under fire for Saudi arms export ban
AFP, Berlin
Export power Germany has long had a troubled relationship with selling arms abroad, a legacy of its dark history that is now spelling deep discord with its European allies.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government has recently sparred with both France and Britain over the issue, while trouble is also brewing within her uneasy left-right coalition government.
US, Russian envoys discuss Afghan peace
AP, Ankara
The U.S. peace envoy for Afghanistan has met his Russian counterpart in the Turkish capital for talks on efforts to end the 17-year war in Afghanistan.
The Russian Embassy in Ankara announced on Twitter Friday that it was hosting a meeting between Washington’s peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad and Zamir Kabulov, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s envoy for Afghanistan.
5 children die of food poisoning in Pakistan
AP, Karachi
Pakistani police say five children have died of suspected food poisoning after their family had dinner at a restaurant in the country’s south.
Police official Ameer Shaikh said on Friday that the family of eight, from the southwestern city of Quetta, arrived in the port city of Karachi the previous night.
Pompeo discusses Yemen, Venezuela with UN chief
AFP, United Nations
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed peace efforts in Yemen and the crisis in Venezuela with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York on Thursday, a UN spokesman said.
The 35-minute meeting at UN headquarters was requested by Pompeo.
Pompeo and the UN chief “discussed the situation in Yemen, in particular the implementation of the Stockholm Agreement and the importance of the parties to begin phase 1 of the redeployment from Hodeida,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
China to welcome UK finance minister visit
AFP, Beijing
China would welcome a visit by Britain’s finance minister Philip Hammond, the Chinese foreign ministry said on Friday, a day after the minister had said talk of deploying a British warship in the Pacific had complicated bilateral relations.
As Britain prepares to leave the European Union at the end of next month, its biggest foreign and trade policy shift in more than 40 years, it is seeking to strengthen diplomatic relationships and trade ties with countries around the world.
