News In Brief

Iraqi Kurdish president in Baghdad for talks
AFP, Baghdad
The president of Iraqi Kurdistan travelled to Baghdad on Wednesday for talks with senior officials just hours ahead of a special parliament session to discuss weeks of deadly anti-government demonstrations.
The head of the United Nations’ mission in Iraq (UNAMI) was expected to attend the legislative meeting in the afternoon as diplomatic pressure on Baghdad intensifies.

Colombia FF to move to top defense post
Reuters, Bogota
Colombia’s foreign minister, Carlos Holmes Trujillo, will move to head the Defense Ministry, President Ivan Duque said on Tuesday, where he will focus on everyday security and the fight against armed groups and drug trafficking.
Trujillo will be replaced by Claudia Blum, a former senator and United Nations ambassador, Duque said.

British MP Keith Vaz resigns from parliament amid drug scandal
AFP, London
Veteran British lawmaker Keith Vaz has announced he is standing down from parliament, just weeks after he was censured in a cocaine scandal. Vaz, who was born to Goan parents in Yemen, was first elected for the central English city of Leicester in 1987. He will not stand again in next month’s vote, he announced late Sunday.
A parliamentary watchdog last month recommended Vaz be suspended for six months for expressing a willingness to buy cocaine during an encounter with two male prostitutes.

Spain’s repeat election fails to break political deadlock
AFP, Madrid
Spain’s Socialists faced tough talks to form a government Monday after the party emerged on top but weakened from a repeat election that produced an even more divided parliament and propelled far-right Vox into third place.
Neither the left nor the right bloc are anywhere near an absolute majority in the 350-seat assembly following Sunday’s polls, prolonging political deadlock in the eurozone’s fourth-largest economy following a similar result in April’s election.

Turkey police rearrest journalist Ahmet Altan
AFP, Ankara
Turkish police acting on a court order rearrested journalist and novelist Ahmet Altan Tuesday, just a week after his release from prison over alleged links to the failed 2016 coup.
Altan and another veteran journalist Nazli Ilicak were released on November 4 despite having been convicted of “helping a terrorist group”.

7 killed in Kabul car bomb blast
AFP, Kabul
At least seven people were killed and seven wounded when a car bomb detonated during Kabul’s busy morning rush hour Wednesday, an interior ministry spokesman said.
The spokesman, Nasrat Rahimi, said the bomb had gone off in a neighbourhood which is near the interior ministry and north of Kabul airport.