All About: Sweden faces, Kim asks Trump, Guatemalans protest, Iran orders

U.S. President Donald Trump received a letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un asking for a second meeting and the White House is already looking at scheduling one, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Monday.

Sweden faces political impasse after far-right election gains

Sweden faces a political impasse after its mainstream centre-left and centre-right blocs virtually tied in an election on Sunday, while the far-right - which neither wants to deal with - made gains on a hardline anti-immigration platform. With nearly all votes counted on Monday, the ruling center-left Social Democrats and Greens and their Left Party parliamentary ally had 40.6 percent of the vote, while the opposition center-right Alliance was on 40.3 percent.

North Korea's Kim asks Trump for another meeting in a new letter

U.S. President Donald Trump received a letter from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un asking for a second meeting and the White House is already looking at scheduling one, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said on Monday. The two leaders have been discussing North Korea's nuclear program since their June 12 summit, which has been criticized for being short on concrete details about how and whether Kim is willing to give up on a nuclear weapons program that threatens the United States.

U.S. MMA fighter Jeff Monson elected to local council in Russia

U.S. mixed martial arts fighter Jeffrey Monson, granted Russian citizenship by President Vladimir Putin in May, was elected on Sunday to the council of deputies of a small city just outside Moscow, official election results showed on Monday. Monson, 47, a tattooed cage fighter known as The Snowman, registered in June to run for a seat on the council of Krasnogorsk, northwest of Moscow, where election documents say he now works as a coach in a sports club.

Nigerian gas tanker explosion kills at least 35

At least 35 people were killed on Monday and hundreds injured when a gas tanker exploded in the northern Nigerian state of Nasarawa and started a blaze, the state emergency agency said. The State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) official said the accident happened at a petrol station along the Lafia-Makurdi road linking the capital city of Abuja with northern and southern Nigeria.

U.S. 'gravely concerned' by reports of abuse by Ugandan security forces: official

The United States is "gravely concerned" by reports of excessive force used by Uganda's security forces against lawmakers and journalists in the northwestern town of Arua, a State Department official said on Monday after the country's opposition called on Washington to suspend military support to Kampala. A group of five lawmakers, including opposition leader Robert Kyagulanyi, who is also a musician known by his stage name Bobi Wine, were arrested in Arua last month. Kyagulanyi, who is currently in the United States for medical treatment, and fellow member of parliament Francis Zaake say they were tortured while in detention.

Guatemalans protest against pressure on anti-graft body

Hundreds of peasant farmers and indigenous Maya blocked a major highway in Guatemala's western highlands on Monday, demanding that President Jimmy Morales reverse a policy aimed at forcing a U.N.-backed anti-graft unit to leave the country. Groups representing the protesters said in a statement they planned more rallies over the next two days, including in capital Guatemala City, after Morales announced at the end of August that he would not renew the mandate of the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG).

More than 30,000 displaced in Syria's Idlib in latest offensive: U.N.

More than 30,000 people have so far fled their homes in northwest Syria since Syrian government and allied forces resumed air and ground bombardments there last week, the U.N. agency coordinating relief efforts said on Monday. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said an all-out military assault on the last major stronghold of active opposition to President Bashar al-Assad could set 800,000 people to flight. The OCHA chief, Mark Lowcock, warned that this risked provoking the worst humanitarian catastrophe of the 21st Century.

China to crack down on 'chaotic' online religious info: media

China has drawn up new draft guidelines to crack down on the "chaotic" and illegal online promotion of religion, the official Global Times reported on Tuesday, part of a tough state campaign to bring religious worship into line. All organizations engaged in the dissemination of religious information online will be obliged to apply for licenses from provincial religious affairs departments, the paper said, citing a policy document issued on Monday.

Iran ordered to pay $104.7 million over 1996 truck bomb attack: U.S. judge

A federal judge in Washington, D.C. on Monday ordered Iran to pay $104.7 million to victims of a June 1996 truck bombing in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia that killed 19 U.S. military personnel, though it is unclear when and how the plaintiffs might collect. Chief Judge Beryl Howell entered a default judgment against Iran and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which did not defend against claims over their alleged roles in the attack, which sheared off the front of the Khobar Towers complex.

Vatican preparing response to archbishop's accusations, cardinals say

The Vatican is preparing a response to bombshell allegations made by an Italian archbishop who asked Pope Francis to step down, accusing him of covering up sexual misconduct by an American cardinal, his top advisers said on Monday. The statement came at the end of the first day of a three-day meeting of the "C-9", a group of nine cardinals from around the world who meet with the pope at the Vatican several times a year to advise him on Church matters.