Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. No turning back: Syrian Kurds reshape region with books and schools

When Eyub Mohamad was a boy, security forces beat his father into paralysis. His offence was typing leaflets in Kurdish, banned under Syria's ruling Baath party. Mohamad, with his family, fed and bathed his father for years. Wary of the typewriter that landed his father in interrogation rooms, he avoided learning to read his own language. Berlusconi says ready for EU vote after "big fright" of emergency surgery

Four-time Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, 82, said on Monday he was ready to resume all electoral engagements after undergoing emergency surgery last week for a bowel obstruction that made him fear for his life. "I'm fine, I got a big fright. A number of things that happened made me worry I was at the end of my ride, but then I had a formidable recovery," Berlusconi told reporters as he was discharged from Milan's San Raffaele hospital. Two U.S. warships sail in disputed South China Sea

The U.S. military said two of its warships sailed near islands claimed by China in the South China Sea on Monday, a move that angered Beijing at a time of tense ties between the world's two biggest economies. The busy waterway is one of a growing number of flashpoints in the U.S.-China relationship, which also include a trade war, U.S. sanctions and Taiwan. Gaza-Israel border falls quiet as ceasefire takes hold

A surge in deadly violence in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel petered out overnight with Palestinian officials reporting that Egypt had mediated a ceasefire on Monday ending the most serious spate of cross-border clashes for months. The latest round of fighting erupted three days ago, peaking on Sunday when rockets and missiles from Gaza killed four civilians in Israel. Israeli strikes killed 21 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians, over the weekend. Forty-one reported killed after Russian passenger plane crash-lands in Moscow

Forty-one people on board a Russian Aeroflot passenger plane were killed on Sunday, including two children, after the aircraft caught fire as it made a bumpy emergency landing at a Moscow airport, Russian investigators said. Television footage showed the Sukhoi Superjet 100 crash bouncing along the tarmac at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport before the rear part of the plane suddenly burst into flames. Japan's Abe and Trump to discuss North Korea on Monday: NHK

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and U.S. President Donald Trump are set to talk by telephone on Monday and discuss projectiles fired by North Korea, national broadcaster NHK said. North Korea fired several "unidentified short-range projectiles" into the sea off its east coast on Saturday, prompting the South to urge its communist neighbor to "stop acts that escalate military tension on the Korean peninsula". Indian judges' panel clears chief justice of sexual harassment

India's Supreme Court on Monday said a panel of its judges had dismissed a complaint of sexual harassment made against Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi by a former court employee, as it lacked substance. The case involving India's most powerful judge is the most high-profile in a wave of allegations of sexual harassment that have been made public by women since last year as the #metoo movement has swept the country. U.S. deploying carrier, bombers to Middle East to deter Iran: Bolton

The Trump administration is deploying a carrier strike group and bombers to the Middle East in response to troubling "indications and warnings" from Iran and to show the United States will retaliate with "unrelenting force" to any attack, national security adviser John Bolton said on Sunday. With tensions already high between Washington and Tehran, a U.S. official said the deployment has been ordered "as a deterrence to what has been seen as potential preparations by Iranian forces and its proxies that may indicate possible attacks on U.S. forces in the region."However, the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States was not expecting any imminent Iranian attack. China says it won't take part in trilateral nuclear arms talks

China on Monday dismissed a suggestion that it would talk with the United States and Russia about a new accord limiting nuclear arms, saying it would not take part in any trilateral nuclear disarmament negotiations. U.S. President Donald Trump said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed on Friday the possibility of the new accord that could eventually include China in what would be a major deal between the globe's top three atomic powers. UK PM May looking at second Brexit vote options if talks fail: Telegraph

British Prime Minister Theresa May has carried out "scenario planning" for a second Brexit referendum in case she is forced by parliament to hold one, the Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on Monday. May is hoping to find a way to get parliament to approve a Brexit plan without another public vote, but talks with the opposition Labour Party on a compromise exit strategy have yet to reach an agreement.