A Syrian rebel and a war monitor said Russian air strikes had resumed against insurgents in Syria s northwestern Idlib province on Tuesday after several weeks. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has sworn to recapture every inch of Syria and has made big gains against rebels since Russia joined his war effort in 2015.

Spain has halted the sale of a shipment of bombs to Saudi Arabia amid concerns about their use in the conflict in Yemen, the Spanish Defence Ministry said on Tuesday. Amnesty International and other human rights groups have denounced Western arms sales to Saudi Arabia and its allies in a war which the United Nations says has killed more than 10,000 people and left 8.4 million on the brink of famine.

Europe is not helping preserve the agreement on Iran s nuclear programme by asking for additional negotiations on issues like missiles, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, a powerful anti-Western cleric, said Tuesday, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency. Jannati is the head of the Assembly of Experts, an influential body that can select and dismiss the supreme leader, the highest authority in Iran.

The Irish government must treat the US president’s office with the respect it deserves when Donald Trump visits in November despite disagreeing with many of his policies, Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said ahead of planned protests. Trump will travel to Ireland for the first time as president during a trip to Europe to attend a Nov. 11 commemoration in Paris of the 100th anniversary of the armistice that ended World War One, the White House said on Friday.

Two Reuters journalists accused of breaching Myanmar’s state secrets law while reporting on a massacre of Rohingya Muslims were jailed for seven years Monday, fuelling further international outrage a week after the army was accused of genocide. Wa Lone, 32, and Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, who have been held in Yangon’s Insein prison since their arrest in December, were charged with violating the Official Secrets Act, a draconian British colonial-era law which carries a maximum sentence of 14 years.

The US military plans to cancel $300 million in aid to Pakistan due to Islamabad s lack of "decisive actions" in support of American strategy in the region, the Pentagon said Saturday. The US has been pushing Pakistan to crack down on militant safe havens in the country, and announced a freeze on aid at the beginning of the year that an official said could be worth almost $2 billion.

Eighteen people were injured as the anti-migrant far-right and counter-protesters held opposing rallies in the German city of Chemnitz, which was hit by xenophobic demonstrations last week. Chemnitz has been in the spotlight after violent protests erupted over the fatal stabbing of a German man, allegedly by a Syrian and an Iraqi last Sunday.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Wednesday held previously unannounced talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish presidency said, with the situation in Syria likely to have dominated the agenda. With expectation growing of an offensive by Tehran ally President Bashar al-Assad in Syria s Idlib province bordering Turkey, Zarif held one hour of talks with Erdogan at his ruling party headquarters in Ankara Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who attended the meeting, said "bilateral ties... (and) Syria" were on the agenda, state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

Britain is committed to free trade with Kenya after it leaves the European Union, British Prime Minister Theresa May said on Thursday on a visit to Nairobi as her government plays up increased trade with non-EU nations as a Brexit selling point. May was speaking on the third stop of a trip to Africa during which she has said she wants Britain to become the biggest investor on the continent out of the world s richest nations.

More than 50,000 people have evacuated their homes in central Myanmar after part of a dam failed on Wednesday, inundating communities and damaging a bridge on a major highway, officials said. The incident spotlights safety concerns about dams in Southeast Asia following last month s collapse of a hydroelectric dam in neighbouring Laos that displaced thousands of people and killed at least 27.

Security forces in Iran have arrested tens of spies working in state bodies, Intelligence Minister said on Tuesday, at a time of rising tensions between Iran and the West following the reimposition of U.S. sanctions on Tehran. Mahmoud Alavi did not say when the arrests took place or which countries the spies allegedly were working for, but indicated that many of the detainees were dual nationals.

African migrants rejected by Italy in a standoff with the European Union last week said they had been held by smugglers for up to two years in Libya and many had been beaten, tortured and raped, the U.N. migration agency said on Tuesday. The 150 migrants, mainly Eritreans and Somalis, were rescued in the Mediterranean on Aug. 15 but waited 10 days while Italy s anti-immigrant government refused to let them disembark, until Ireland, Albania and the Vatican agreed to accept them.

Iran on Monday demanded the UN s top court suspend US nuclear-linked sanctions against Tehran, accusing Washington of plotting its "economic strangulation". The Islamic Republic launched a suit at the International Court of Justice in The Hague over US President Donald Trump s decision to reimpose the sanctions that had been lifted in a 2015 accord.

President Emmanuel Macron on Monday said preserving European Union unity was more important than forging a close relationship with post-Brexit Britain, and hit out at what he called U.S. President Donald Trump s "aggressive" isolationism. Macron, who met Prime Minister Theresa May for talks on Britain s departure from the EU during the summer holiday, said he wanted to reach a Brexit deal by the end of the year and showed no signs of breaking ranks with other EU capitals.

Prime Minister Theresa May will make a three-nation visit to Africa this week, her first to the continent since becoming British leader in 2016, aimed at boosting post-Brexit trade ties. May, joined by several ministers and 29 business representatives from various industries, will visit South Africa, Nigeria and Kenya during the three-day trip, Downing Street said Monday.

Emmerson Mnangagwa was officially sworn in as president of Zimbabwe on Sunday after winning a bitterly contested election that marked the country s first vote since strongman Robert Mugabe was ousted from power. Mnangagwa, whose victory in the July 30 polls was challenged by the main opposition, pledged to “protect and promote the rights of Zimbabweans” in an inauguration ceremony attended by thousands of supporters at a stadium in Harare.

Iran s parliament impeached Economy Minister Masoud Karbasian on Sunday in the latest blow to embattled President Hassan Rouhani as he struggles to face down a mounting economic crisis. Karbasian is the second cabinet minister to be sacked this month, following the impeachment of Labour Minister Ali Rabiei on August 8.

Venezuela issued a new currency Monday in an attempt to bolster its crumbling economy as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that inflation could hit one million percent this year. The move, part of a dramatic raft of measures aimed at halting runaway hyperinflation, comes as thousands of Venezuelans continue to flee across the border into neighboring countries amid food and medicine shortages, political turmoil and soaring crime rates.

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he had asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to “closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures” and the killing of farmers there. “I have asked Secretary of State @SecPompeo to closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and large scale killing of farmers,” Trump said in a post on Twitter.

Taiwan s last diplomatic ally in Africa, the Kingdom of eSwatini, said on Wednesday it had no intention of switching ties to China, after a Chinese diplomat said he expected it to ditch Taipei soon amid a bitter diplomatic dispute. Taiwan, which China claims as a wayward province with no right to state-to-state relations, now has formal ties with only 17 countries, almost all small, less developed nations in Central America and the Pacific, like Belize and Nauru.

Hungary is starving some rejected asylum-seekers in transit zones to force them to drop their appeals. Human rights groups worry the policy implemented this month could expand. Hungary s denial of food to some rejected asylum-seekers in transit camps is an attempt to force them to Serbia without appealing their case, according to human rights groups. Human Rights Watch on Wednesday became the latest group to accuse Hungarian authorities of violating basic international asylum standards and human decency by using hunger as an anti-immigration tactic.