WORLD

Tehran, Iran | AFP |  Russian President Vladimir Putin met Iran’s leadership Wednesday in Tehran as the two Damascus allies push a Syria peace plan and the Kremlin offers its backing for a landmark nuclear deal facing US opposition. Putin — on his first visit to Tehran since 2015 — …

The Hague, Netherlands | AFP | Amsterdam will enforce a new ban on ‘beer-bikes’ this week after years of complaints by locals about rowdy tourists getting drunk and disorderly while pedalling along its famous canals. As from Wednesday “the beer bicycle may be banned from the city centre to stop it …

Vatican City, Holy See | AFP | Pope Francis has confessed he sometimes nods off while praying and claims saints too have been known to grab some Holy shut-eye. “When I pray, sometimes I fall asleep,” he said in an episode of a Catholic TV2000 television programme published Tuesday on Youtube. …

Washington, United States | AFP | US President Donald Trump will not be going to the De-Militarized Zone dividing the Korean peninsula when he visits South Korea next week, a senior administration official said Tuesday. The decision to skip the DMZ at a time of high tensions with nuclear-armed North Korea …

Washington, United States | AFP | A wave of indictments has undercut Donald Trump’s attempts to paint allegations of collusion with Russia in his election as a media invention, with the White House admitting the probe is rattling the president. Trump counterpunched in typical fashion Tuesday, a day after it was …

New York, United States | AFP |  Several people were killed and numerous others injured in New York on Tuesday when a suspect plowed into cyclists and pedestrians in Lower Manhattan, and rammed another vehicle on Halloween, police said. The man left the vehicle holding up fake guns, before being …

Wittenberg, Germany | AFP |  Catholic and Lutheran leaders Tuesday asked forgiveness for violence sparked by the Reformation, as worshippers celebrated 500 years since the religious revolution that created the Protestant church. Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier arrived for a service at the church where German theologian Martin …

Washington, United States | AFP | President Donald Trump’s top military and diplomatic aides told US lawmakers Monday that the administration was not seeking new authority for conducting military operations in the world’s hot spots. Congress first passed an authorization to use military force, or AUMF, on September 14, 2001 — …

Singapore, Singapore | AFP | A fast-rising cabinet minister and former army chief seen as a frontrunner to succeed Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said Monday that he and other younger officials were ready to lead Singapore if asked. Political succession in the affluent city-state was thrust into the limelight …

Washington, United States | AFP |  Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman was placed under house arrest Monday, as an investigation into Russia’s manipulation of the 2016 election shifted to a new and more perilous stage for the White House. After a first wave of indictments were unsealed, Paul Manafort and …