News In Brief

Pak Provincial Assembly Speaker arrested
 AP, Islamabad
 Pakistan’s anti-corruption body says it has arrested the speaker of a provincial assembly and member of an opposition party headed by former President Asif Ali Zardari.
In Wednesday’s statement, the National Accountability Bureau says Sindh Assembly Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani was arrested in the capital, Islamabad, on charges of “possessing assets beyond his known sources.”

India to buy 21 MiG-29 jet fighters from Russia
Reuters, Moscow
India plans to buy 21 MiG-29 jet fighters and possibly more from Russia, the RIA news agency cited the deputy director of Russia’s federal service for military-technical cooperation as saying on Wednesday.
The report did not offer a possible time frame for the procurement plans.
New Delhi last year agreed a deal with Russia to buy S-400 surface-to-air missile systems despite a warning from the United States that such a purchase could trigger sanctions under U.S. law.

Russia to extend detention of ex US marine
Reuters, Moscow
Russia’s FSB security service has asked a Moscow court to extend the detention of former U.S. marine Paul Whelan who is being held on suspicion of spying, the Interfax news agency cited a court spokeswoman as saying on Wednesday.
Whelan, who holds U.S., British, Canadian and Irish passports, was detained in a Moscow hotel room on Dec. 28. He denies the charges against him.

Iran- US tensions are at ‘a maximum’: Rouhani
Reuters, London
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday that tensions between Tehran and Washington were at “a maximum” rarely seen in the decades-long contentious relations of the two countries.
Animosity between Washington and Tehran – bitter foes since Iran’s 1979 revolution – has intensified since May when U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from an international nuclear deal with Tehran and reimposed sanctions lifted under the accord.

Egypt executes 9 over killing of top prosecutor
AP, Cairo
Egypt on Wednesday executed nine suspected Muslim Brotherhood members convicted of involvement in the 2015 assassination of Egypt’s top prosecutor, security officials said.
The nine were found guilty of taking part in the bombing that killed Hisham Barakat, the first assassination of a senior official in Egypt in a quarter century.
Netanyahu-Putin meeting posponed
Reuters, Jerusalem
A meeting scheduled between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for Thursday in Moscow has been delayed, an Israeli official said.