World News Roundup: Erdogan criticizes Trump; Iran fires missiles at militants and more

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Iran fires missiles at militants in Syria over parade attack

Iran fired missiles on Monday at militants in Syria it blamed for an attack in southwestern Iran on Sept. 22, the Revolutionary Guards said, in what it called a sign of Tehran's readiness to punish its enemies' "wickedness". Tehran has accused U.S.-backed Gulf Arab states of carrying out the Sept. 22 shooting attack on a military parade that killed 25 people, nearly half of them members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.

Catalan protesters attempt to block transport to mark referendum anniversary

Hundreds of protesters attempted to block roads and train tracks in the Spanish region of Catalonia on Monday while students marched in Barcelona to mark the one-year anniversary of an ill-fated referendum on independence from Spain. In Sant Julia de Ramis, regional leaders gave speeches and people queued to re-enact the vote that was banned by Madrid and the courts for being against Spain's constitution.

Scientists behind game-changing cancer immunotherapies win Nobel medicine prize

American James Allison and Japanese Tasuku Honjo won the 2018 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine on Monday for game-changing discoveries about how to harness and manipulate the immune system to fight cancer. The scientists' work in the 1990s has since swiftly led to new and dramatically improved therapies for cancers such as melanoma and lung cancer, which had previously been extremely difficult to treat.

'Don't bully us', Britain takes new combative tone to Brexit talks

Britain cannot be bullied, Brexit minister Dominic Raab said on Monday, sharpening the government's criticism of the European Union for taunting Prime Minister Theresa May and souring difficult Brexit talks. May's ministers have come out one by one at their party's annual conference in the city of Birmingham to warn the EU that they will embrace leaving without a deal if the bloc fails to show "respect" in the talks to end Britain's membership.

Turkey's Erdogan says United States has taken wrong path

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday the United States had taken the wrong path by threatening and using blackmail instead of dialogue, and said that it was impossible for any country to trust it. In a speech at the opening of parliament, Erdogan said the United States had lost credibility by engaging in trade wars globally. Ankara and Washington have been embroiled in a diplomatic spat over the trial in Turkey of U.S. pastor Andrew Brunson.

Indonesia scrambles to help quake-hit island as death toll tops 800

Indonesian authorities scrambled to get food, aid and equipment into quake-hit Sulawesi island on Monday as the death toll from the disaster soared to 832 and looked certain to rise as rescuers struggled to reach devastated outlying communities. Dozens of people were reported to be trapped in the rubble of several hotels and a mall in the city of Palu, which was hit by waves as high as six meters (20 feet) following the 7.5 magnitude earthquake on Friday.

Hungary's top news portal closes briefly to highlight media freedom concerns

The largest source of independent news in Hungary briefly took down the front page of its online portal on Monday to sound the alarm over what it sees as its declining editorial freedom and to secure funding from readers to help protect its independence. Journalists working at Index.hu fear the two investors who took control of the news portal last month may be linked to Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his ruling right-wing Fidesz Party and may try to curb their editorial freedom.

Ukraine needs Azov Sea base to counter new Russian threat: military chief

Ukraine will build a military base on the Azov Sea and has sent more forces to the area to counter a worsening Russian threat, Ukraine's armed forces head told Reuters, referring to an arm of the Black Sea that is a flashpoint of tensions with Moscow. Ukraine has been at loggerheads with Russia since the 2014 annexation of Crimea and more than 10,000 people have died in fighting between Ukrainian troops and Moscow-backed separatists. Ukraine and NATO countries accuse Russia of supplying troops and heavy weapons to eastern Ukraine, which Moscow denies.

As Chinese influence grows, Japanese warship visits Sri Lanka

Japan's largest warship, the Kaga helicopter carrier, sailed into Sri Lanka's Colombo harbor this weekend, marking Tokyo's highest profile salvo in a diplomatic battle with China for influence along the region's vital commercial sea lanes. Japan has long provided low-interest loans and aid to Sri Lanka, helping it transform Colombo into a major trans-shipment port tapping the artery of global trade just south of the island that links Europe and the Middle East with Asia.

Swedish court finds man at center of Nobel prize scandal guilty of rape

A Swedish court on Monday found a man at the center of a scandal that has rocked the academy that awards the Nobel literature prize guilty of rape and sentenced him to two years in jail. The crisis over the charges against Jean-Claude Arnault prompted some members of the Swedish Academy to quit and forced it to cancel this year's literature prize, which would have been announced this month.