Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Turkey says 109 militants killed in advance into northeast Syria

Turkish forces have killed more than 100 militants in an assault on Kurdish militia in northeast Syria, Turkey's president said on Thursday, as heavy shelling and air strikes against targets in the region continued. According to a senior Turkish security official, armed forces struck weapons and ammunition depots, gun and sniper positions, tunnels and military bases. Alone before an invisible audience: German gunman lived online

The alleged perpetrator of Wednesday's gun attack on a German synagogue had few friends, but a clear idea of the internet audience he wanted to impress. "Want to be friends?" he asked with a smirk at the start of his livestreamed rampage through the city of Halle, later cursing and apologizing to his invisible audience for failing to shoot the congregation praying inside. Jewish leader says German synagogue attacked by gunman inadequately protected

A prominent Jewish community leader accused German authorities on Thursday of providing inadequate security at a synagogue that was attacked by a far-right gunman as dozens prayed inside. Though the gunman did not get into the building in Wednesday's attack, he killed two bystanders in a subsequent live-streamed rampage, which appeared to be modeled on last year's gun attack on a New Zealand mosque. Austrian Handke and Poland's Tokarczuk win Nobel literature prizes

Austrian writer Peter Handke won the 2019 Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday and the 2018 award went to Polish author Olga Tokarczuk, the Swedish Academy said on Thursday. Handke, 76, was recognised for a body of work which includes novels, essays, notebooks and drama and "that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience," the Academy said in a statement. Top-level U.S.-China trade talks resume as irritants sour atmosphere

The United States' and China's top trade negotiators were set to meet on Thursday for the first time since late July to try to find a way out of a 15-month trade war as new irritants between the world's two largest economies threatened hopes for progress. Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will seek to narrow differences enough to avoid a scheduled Oct. 15 tariff rate increase on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods. More Hong Kong protests planned as metro limps back to business

Hong Kong's metro rail system will shut early again on Thursday to allow time to repair damaged facilities, its operator said as the city braced for more anti-government demonstrations after a string of violent protests in the Asian financial hub. MTR Corp, whose network carries about 5 million passengers a day, said a line servicing a densely populated area in the city's New Territories would not operate and all lines would close by 9 p.m. (1300 GMT), more than three hours earlier than normal. Serbia, Albania, North Macedonia agree to allow passport-free travel

The leaders of Albania, North Macedonia and Serbia agreed on Thursday to allow passport-free travel for their citizens by 2021 and a speedier cross-border flow of goods to boost regional economic development. Six Western Balkan countries -- Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Montenegro, Macedonia and Serbia -- hope to join the European Union, but their accession has been slowed down by Brexit and other factors. Their mutual relations are also burdened by the legacy of the bloody wars of the 1990s in the Balkans. Pakistan says Khan could visit Saudi, Iran, after U.S. mediation request

Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan is likely to visit Saudi Arabia and Iran, the foreign office in Islamabad said on Thursday, weeks after Islamabad said Washington had asked it to mediate with Tehran. "The possibility of a visit of the prime minister to Saudi Arabia and Iran is on the cards and I will update you as things unfold," foreign office spokesman, Mohammad Fasisal, told a news briefing. The migrant caravans: A common road toward different fates

The images were dramatic: Central American migrants moving northward en masse through Mexico - men, women and children walking up to 30 miles a day, some hitching rides or catching freight trains. The caravans of 2018 and early 2019 were not the first of their kind – but they were, all told, the largest and most visible, gaining attention and size partly because U.S. President Donald Trump repeatedly warned of their approach. Malaysia arrests two politicians suspected of links to Sri Lanka rebel group

Malaysian police on Thursday arrested seven people, including two politicians, suspected of having links to the now-defunct Sri Lankan Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) separatist group. Malaysia has listed the LTTE as a terrorist organization since 2014 amid reports of attempts to revive the group from abroad.

Also Read: Gunman opens fire near synagogue in Germany; 2 dead, several injured