Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs. Nepal pushes to end dependency on India with China rail, tunnel deals

Chinese President Xi Jinping wound up two days of meetings in Nepal on Sunday with separate deals for a rail link to Tibet and a tunnel, an official said, as the Himalayan nation seeks to end an Indian dominance over its trade routes by increasing connectivity with Beijing. The 70-km (42-mile) rail link will connect Gyiron in Tibet with Nepal's capital city of Kathmandu, making it one of the most ambitious infrastructure projects in the country. Saudi Arabia says it is not behind Iranian tanker struck in Red Sea

A Saudi minister said on Sunday that Riyadh was not behind a suspected strike against an Iranian-owned oil tanker in the Red Sea, which Iranian state-run television said was hit on Friday by missiles but denied reports they came from Saudi Arabia. "We did not engage in such behavior at all. This is not how we operate and that's not how we did (it) in the past," Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir told reporters in Riyadh. Brexit hangs in the balance as talks between EU and Britain intensify

Brexit talks with the European Union aimed at striking a last-minute divorce deal are getting serious, Britain said on Sunday, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson prepared to update his cabinet on the state of negotiations. In a pivotal week that could decide the future of Brexit and the fate of the world's fifth largest economy, Johnson is trying to strike an exit deal with the EU to allow an orderly departure on Oct. 31. Khamenei tells Iran's Guards to develop more advanced, modern weapons

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards on Sunday to develop more advanced and modern weapons, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported, amid rising regional tensions. "The Guards should have advanced and modern weapons ... Your weapons should be modern and updated. It should be developed at home. You need to develop and produce your weapons," Khamenei said in a speech at Imam Hussein Military University in Tehran. Putin says Trump not to blame for lack of improvement in Russia-U.S. ties

Moscow is not blaming U.S. President Donald Trump for failing to improve U.S.-Russian relations, a pledge he had made during his election campaign, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with Arab broadcasters. "We know that, including during his previous election campaign, he spoke in favor of a normalization (of U.S.-Russia relations), but unfortunately it has not happened yet," Putin told Al Arabiya, Sky News Arabia and RT Arabic. Hong Kong protesters, police in chaotic clashes, as metro, shops targeted

Hong Kong pro-democracy activists and riot police clashed in chaotic scenes around the city on Sunday with police in full riot gear chasing protesters through crowds of horrified lunchtime shoppers. Several rallies in shopping mall started peacefully around midday with a few hundred people at each chanting slogans such as "Free Hong Kong", but by late afternoon hardcore black-clad activists trashed shops and metro stations and erected road blocks around the city. Japan sends in troops after massive typhoon hammers Tokyo, kills 23

Japan sent tens of thousands of troops and rescue workers on Sunday to save stranded residents and fight floods caused by one of the worst typhoons to hit the country in recent history, which killed 23 people and briefly paralyzed Tokyo. There were also 16 people missing, public broadcaster NHK said, as Typhoon Hagibis left vast swaths of low-lying land in central and eastern Japan inundated and cut power to almost half a million homes. Putin says no reliable information about who attacked Saudi oil plants

Russian President Vladimir Putin said before his first visit to Saudi Arabia in more than a decade that Moscow could play a key role in easing regional tensions given its good ties with Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab states and Shi'ite Iran. Putin also told Arab broadcasters in an interview aired on Sunday he had no reliable information about who was behind last month's attack on Saudi oil facilities. China's Xi warns attempts to divide China will end in 'shuttered bones'

Chinese President Xi Jinping warned on Sunday that any attempt to divide China will be crushed, as Beijing faces political challenges in months-long protests in Hong Kong and U.S. criticism over its treatment of Muslim minority groups. "Anyone attempting to split China in any part of the country will end in crushed bodies and shuttered bones," he told Nepal's Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli in a meeting on Sunday, according to China's state broadcaster CCTV. Islamic State relatives flee en masse from Syrian camp: Kurdish-led authority

Women affiliated with Islamic State and their children fled en masse from a camp where they were being held in northern Syria on Sunday after shelling by Turkish forces in a five-day-old offensive, the region's Kurdish-led administration said. Turkey's cross-border attack in northern Syria against Kurdish forces widened to target the town of Suluk which was hit by Ankara's Syrian rebel allies. There were conflicting accounts on the outcome of the fighting.

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