All about Syrian air defenses, Idlib buffer zone, Brexit deal

Russia's defense ministry said it had lost contact with an IL-20 aircraft with 14 servicemen on board near Syria's Hmeimim airbase, Syrian state-run Ikhbariya TV reported late on Monday.


Devdiscourse News Desk | Updated: 18-09-2018 05:28 IST | Created: 18-09-2018 05:22 IST
All about Syrian air defenses, Idlib buffer zone, Brexit deal
Venezuela's school year began on Monday with few students arriving in classrooms amid a crippling economic crisis that has left many families unable to afford supplies or provide their children with enough food to focus on schoolwork.

Syrian air defenses intercept missiles fired at Latakia: state media

Missiles were fired from the sea at several locations in the Syrian coastal city of Latakia on Monday but were intercepted by air defenses, Syrian state media said. The official SANA news agency said the Technical Industry Institution in the state-controlled city had been targeted. SANA added that it was not immediately known who fired the missiles.

Russia's defense ministry says it lost contact with an IL-20 aircraft: Syrian state TV

Russia's defense ministry said it had lost contact with an IL-20 aircraft with 14 servicemen on board near Syria's Hmeimim airbase, Syrian state-run Ikhbariya TV reported late on Monday. Syrian state media said earlier on Monday missiles were fired from the sea at several locations in the Syrian coastal city of Latakia, but were intercepted by air defenses.

Two Koreas hold high-stakes summit with nuclear talks in jeopardy

South Korea's President Moon Jae-in is set to cross the heavily militarized border on Tuesday for his third summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, seeking to cement a breakthrough in faltering nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington. The inter-Korean summit will be a litmus test for another meeting Kim has recently proposed to U.S. President Donald Trump, giving clues to whether Kim is serious about denuclearization, a commitment he made at their first encounter in June.

Russia and Turkey agree to create a buffer zone in Syria's Idlib

Russian and Turkish troops are to enforce a new demilitarized zone in Syria's Idlib region from which "radical" rebels will be required to withdraw by the middle of next month, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday after a meeting with his Turkish counterpart. Russia, the biggest outside backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his fight against rebels, has been preparing for an offensive on the city of Idlib, which is controlled by rebels and now home to about 3 million people.

UK PM May tells rebels: It's my Brexit deal or no deal

Prime Minister Theresa May told rebels in her divided party that if they torpedoed her Brexit deal then the United Kingdom would leave the EU without any agreement, a scenario the IMF said would make the country much poorer. The United Kingdom is due to leave the EU on March 29 and yet little is clear. So far, no full exit agreement has been reached and some right-wing rebels in May's Conservative Party have threatened to vote down a deal if she clinches one.

Saudi-led coalition strikes navy school in Yemen's Hodeidah: al-Masirah TV

A Saudi-led coalition struck a navy school in Yemen's port city of Hodeidah, the Houthis' al-Masirah TV said late on Monday. No comment from the coalition was immediately available.

U.S. Air Force seeks sharp growth to stay ahead of China, Russia

The U.S. Air Force is predicting it will need to grow sharply over the next decade or so, boosting the number of operational squadrons by nearly a quarter to stay ahead of increasingly muscular militaries in China and Russia, officials said. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson told reporters that the preliminary analysis drew partly from classified intelligence about possible threats in the 2025 to 2030 time frame, showing that the service, at its current size, would be unable to preserve America's edge."The Air Force is too small for what the nation is asking us to do," Wilson told a small group of reporters ahead of a speech on Monday that will lay out her arguments.

Classrooms near empty as school starts in crisis-stricken Venezuela

Venezuela's school year began on Monday with few students arriving in classrooms amid a crippling economic crisis that has left many families unable to afford supplies or provide their children with enough food to focus on schoolwork. The OPEC nation is collapsing under low oil prices and an unraveling socialist economic system, leaving millions struggling to eat and hundreds of thousands streaming into neighboring countries in search of better conditions.

Tesla's Musk issued for calling Thai cave rescuer pedophile

Elon Musk, the chief executive of Tesla Inc, was sued for defamation on Monday for falsely suggesting that a British caver who helped rescue 12 boys and their soccer coach from a Thailand cave in July was a pedophile and child rapist. Vernon Unsworth, who lives north of London, sued over Musk's July 15 tweet to more than 22 million followers referring to him as a "pedo guy," a comment for which Musk later apologized.

At U.N., U.S. accuses Russia of 'cheating' on North Korea sanctions

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley accused Russia on Monday of "cheating" on U.N. sanctions on North Korea and said Washington has "evidence of consistent and wide-ranging Russian violations." The showdown between the United States and Russia over North Korea publicly showed cracks in the unity of the 15-member U.N. Security Council, which has unanimously boosted sanctions since 2006 in a bid to choke off funding for Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

(With inputs from Reuters)

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