World News Roundup: Two rockets fall inside Baghdad's Green Zone; Puerto Rico, slow electricity after earthquake and more

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Two rockets fall inside Baghdad's Green Zone

Two rockets fell on Wednesday inside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses government buildings and foreign missions, but caused no casualties, the Iraqi military said. Sirens were sounding inside the Green Zone. Police sources told Reuters at least one of the rockets fell 100 meters (yards) from the U.S. Embassy.

Puerto Rico slow to bring back electricity after powerful earthquake

Two-thirds of Puerto Rico remained without power and nearly a quarter lacked drinking water on Wednesday after a storm of earthquakes battered the Caribbean island on Tuesday, including the most powerful to strike the U.S. territory in 102 years. The temblors, including one of magnitude 6.4, killed at least one person and destroyed or damaged some 300 homes, provoking a state of emergency on the island of 3 million people and the activation of the National Guard.

Boeing jet crashes in Iran with no survivors, security sources see technical cause

A Ukrainian airliner fell to earth in a fireball shortly after take-off from Tehran on Wednesday, killing all 176 people on board in a crash that sparked an international scramble to establish the cause. The Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800, en route to Kiev and carrying mostly Iranians and Iranian-Canadians, crashed hours after Iran fired missiles at bases housing U.S. forces in Iraq, leading some to speculate that the plane may have been hit.

Trump, Israel's Netanyahu discuss regional issues in call: White House

U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "discussed critical bilateral and regional issues" in a call on Wednesday, the White House said in a statement, without giving further details.

Two rockets fall inside Green Zone, no casualties: Iraqi military

Iraq's military said on Wednesday that two rockets had fallen inside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, which houses government buildings and foreign missions, but caused no casualties. It did not provide further details. "Two Katyusha rockets fall inside the Green Zone without causing casualties. Details to follow," it said in a statement.

Trump softens rhetoric after Iranian missile attacks, says Tehran appears to be 'standing down'

President Donald Trump on Wednesday tempered days of angry rhetoric and suggested Iran was "standing down" after it fired missiles at U.S. forces in Iraq overnight, as both sides looked to defuse a crisis over the U.S. killing of an Iranian general Trump said the United States did not necessarily have to respond militarily to Iran's attack on military bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq, itself an act of retaliation for the Jan. 3 U.S. strike that killed Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani.

Dozens excused from Weinstein jury as lawyers seek judge's removal

Dozens of potential jurors were excused on Wednesday from serving in the rape trial of Harvey Weinstein, as the former movie producer's lawyers accused the judge presiding over the trial of bias. In all, 90 of the 120 potential jurors summoned to state court in Manhattan on the second day of jury selection were dismissed, most after saying they could not be impartial in the case.

UK royals Harry and Meghan step back from senior roles in surprise move

Prince Harry and his wife Meghan will step back from senior roles in Britain's royal family and spend more time in North America, they said on Wednesday, an announcement that appears to have taken his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth, by surprise. After a turbulent year which saw a widening rift with the media and a falling out with elder brother Prince William, Harry said the couple hoped to become financially independent and set up a new charity while continuing some royal duties.

Thousands of young Syrians opt to learn Russian at school

Omar al-Tawil, a 15-year-old schoolboy in Damascus, is one of 24,000 Syrian youngsters now learning Russian at school after the country added the language of the government's most powerful ally to the curriculum. Many young people in Syria, where Moscow intervened in 2015 to help President Bashir al-Assad win back territory, are eager to study Russian in order to travel to Russia or work in Russian companies they expect to appear in Syria in the future.

Exclusive: U.N. investigators find Yemen's Houthis did not carry out Saudi oil attack

Yemen's Houthi group did not launch an attack on Saudi Arabia's oil facilities in September, according to a confidential report by U.N. sanctions monitors seen by Reuters on Wednesday, bolstering a U.S. accusation that Iran was responsible. The United States, European powers and Saudi Arabia blamed Iran for the Sept. 14 attack on the Saudi Aramco oil plants in Abqaiq and Khurais, dismissing a quick claim of responsibility by the Iran-allied Houthis. Tehran denied any involvement.