News in brief

Turkey-US joint patrols in Syria’s Manbij to start soon
Reuters, Ankara
Turkey and the United States will begin joint patrols in the northern Syrian Manbij area soon after training is completed within the next couple of days, Defence Minister Hulusi Akar told state-owned Anadolu news agency on Wednesday.
As agreed by the NATO allies in June, Turkish and U.S. forces have been carrying out patrols in Manbij independent of each other, but have been training in preparation to carry out joint patrols.

Abe vows to bolster ties with China
AP, Tokyo
 Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed to bolster cooperation and friendship between Japan and China in a key policy speech Wednesday before making the first official trip to Beijing by a Japanese leader in seven years.
Abe said Japan and China are both responsible for the region’s peace and prosperity, which he hoped to achieve by boosting exchanges between them.

Anti-India protests in Kashmir
AP, Srinagar
Government forces killed two rebels during a gunbattle in the outskirts of disputed Kashmir’s main city on Wednesday, sparking violent anti-India protests by residents, police said.
Indian troops laid a siege around a neighborhood in Srinagar on a tip that militants were hiding there, police said. The searches by troops triggered an exchange of gunfire resulting in the deaths of two militants and injuries to four soldiers and two counterinsurgency policemen.

Australia considering Saudi arms sales ban
AP, Riyadh
Australia says a ban on arms sales to Saudi Arabia is one of the options it is considering after a journalist was killed at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul.
Australian officials say they are no longer prioritizing a defense industry agreement with Saudi Arabia.
Foreign Affairs Minister Marise Payne was asked in Parliament on Wednesday whether Australia would follow the lead of other countries and suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

Malaysia PM in Thailand for 2-day visit
AP, Bangkok
Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad on Wednesday began a two-day visit to Thailand during which he’s expected to discuss peace talks in southern border provinces with Malaysia, where a Muslim separatist insurgency has been raging for over a decade.
Malaysia has been a facilitator between rebel groups and the Thai government but so far little progress has been made. Almost 7,000 people have died in Thailand’s three southernmost provinces since 2004.

Palestinian killed by Israeli fire
AFP, Jerusalem
A Palestinian was killed by Israeli fire during a clash with the army in the northern West Bank on Wednesday, the health ministry in Ramallah said.
An Israeli army spokeswoman confirmed that an operation had sparked a clash with Palestinians in Tammun, northeast of the city of Nablus, but had no word on any death.