AFP, Jerusalem
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Barack Obama meet Monday to put aside their rocky personal relationship and move past the Iran nuclear deal with multi-billon-dollar talks on defence.
The two have not met since October 2014, and deep disagreement over the July accord between Iran and major world powers provoked bitter exchanges between the traditional allies both before and after it was reached.
Iran to attend next round of Syria peace talks
Reuters, Dubai
Iran will attend the next round of Syria peace talks, a top advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted as saying on Saturday, a week after Tehran threatened to withdraw from the process.
World and regional powers including Iran met in Vienna on Oct. 30 to discuss a political solution to Syria’s civil war.
Taiwan oppn says only democracy can decide future
Reuters, Beijing
Only the people of Taiwan can decide its future and will do so in elections in January, the island’s opposition leader and presidential frontrunner said on Sunday, as China’s top newspaper warned peace was at risk if it opted for independence.
A day after Chinese President Xi Jinping and Taiwan President Ma Ying-jeou held historic talks in Singapore, Tsai Ing-wen, leader of Taiwan’s independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), said the leaders’ meeting had done nothing to make Taiwan’s people feel safer.
Russia faces evacuating 80,000 nationals
from Egypt
AFP, Moscow
Around 80,000 Russians are stranded in Egypt after the Kremlin grounded all flights to the country following the crash of a Russian airliner in the Sinai Peninsula, Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said on Saturday.
President Vladimir Putin ordered the flight suspension on Friday, a possible sign that Russia is attaching more credence to the theory that a bomb brought down the Russian passenger jet in Egypt a week ago, killing all 224 people on board.
Over 90,000 hit by Somalia floods
AFP, Mogadishu
Over 90,000 people in war-torn southern Somalia have been hit by weeks of severe flooding, almost half of them forced from their homes, the United Nations has warned.
“More than 90,000 people have been affected since October 23 and an estimated 42,000 people displaced as a result of the flash floods and river flooding,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said.
Palestinian shot dead in West Bank
Reuters, Jerusalem
A Palestinian driver was shot dead after ramming his car into a bus stop in the occupied West Bank, injuring four people, police said on Sunday, the latest in violence that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will discuss in White House talks.
