World News Roundup: Ethnic Armenians flee Karabakh after breakaway region's defeat; Russian air strike damages Odesa port infrastructure, grain facilities - Kyiv and more

Police retook the monastery late on Sunday, after three attackers and one police officer were killed. Philippines removes Chinese barrier at disputed shoal in 'special operation' The Philippines said on Monday it executed a "special operation" to remove a floating barrier installed by China at a prime fishing patch in the South China Sea, a move that could stoke tension after a years-long detente in Asia's most disputed waters.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Ethnic Armenians flee Karabakh after breakaway region's defeat

Thousands of ethnic Armenians fled the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh on Monday, queuing up for fuel and jamming the road to Armenia after their decades-old separatist state was defeated by Azerbaijan in a lightning military operation. The leadership of the 120,000 Armenians who call Karabakh home told Reuters on Sunday that they did not want to live as part of Azerbaijan and that they would leave for Armenia because they feared persecution and ethnic cleansing.

Russia tortured some Ukrainian victims to death, UN inquiry says

Russia's torture methods in parts of Ukraine it occupied have been so brutal that it tortured some of its victims to death, the head of a U.N.-mandated investigative body said on Monday. Erik Møse, Chair of the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, told the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva his team had "collected further evidence indicating that the use of torture by Russian armed forces in areas under their control has been widespread and systematic".

Russian air strike damages Odesa port infrastructure, grain facilities - Kyiv

An overnight Russian air strike on the southern Ukrainian region of Odesa caused "significant damage" to port infrastructure and destroyed some grain storage facilities, Ukrainian officials said on Monday. No deaths were reported in the attack on Odesa, but at least one person was killed in a separate Russian air strike on the town of Beryslav in the southern region of Kherson region, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.

Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan moved to a new jail after court order - lawyer

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has been moved to a new jail with better facilities near the national capital Islamabad after a court order, his lawyer said on Monday. Khan was jailed in August in connection with a corruption case. A court suspended his prison term weeks later but a prior order for him to be remanded in custody in a case related to charges of leaking state secrets case prevented his release.

Taliban weighs using U.S. mass surveillance plan, met with China's Huawei

The Taliban are creating a large-scale camera surveillance network for Afghan cities that could involve repurposing a plan crafted by the Americans before their 2021 pullout, an interior ministry spokesman told Reuters, as authorities seek to supplement thousands of cameras already across the capital, Kabul. The Taliban administration — which has publicly said it is focused on restoring security and clamping down on Islamic State, which has claimed many major attacks in Afghan cities — has also consulted with Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei about potential cooperation, the spokesman said.

Striking Hollywood writers reach tentative deal with studios

Hollywood's writers union reached a preliminary labor agreement with major studios on Sunday, a deal expected to end one of two strikes that have halted most film and television production and cost the California economy billions. The three-year contract still must be approved by leadership of the Writers Guild of America (WGA,) as well as union members, before it can take effect.

US House to press forward with spending cuts despite shutdown risk

The Republican-controlled House of Representatives is due to try to advance steep spending cuts this week that stand no chance of becoming law and could force a partial shutdown of the U.S. government by next Sunday. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy sought to avoid that scenario when he hammered out a spending agreement with Democratic President Joe Biden this spring. But some members of his own party have threatened to depose him if he does not support steeper cuts that are sure to be rejected by the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Exclusive-U.S. exploring potential space force hotline with China, U.S. commander says

The United States Space Force has had internal discussions about setting up a hotline with China to prevent crises in space, U.S. commander General Chance Saltzman told Reuters on Monday. The chief of space operations said a direct line of communication between the Space Force and its Chinese counterpart would be valuable in de-escalating tensions but that the U.S. had not yet engaged with China to establish one.

Kosovo police enter northern village after shootout with gunmen killed four

Kosovar police units in armoured vehicles moved in to secure and search a village in north Kosovo on Monday, a day after four people were killed in a shootout there between police and ethnic Serb gunmen in the restive region. The gunmen stormed the village of Banjska on Sunday, battling police and barricading themselves into a Serbian Orthodox monastery. Police retook the monastery late on Sunday, after three attackers and one police officer were killed.

Philippines removes Chinese barrier at disputed shoal in 'special operation'

The Philippines said on Monday it executed a "special operation" to remove a floating barrier installed by China at a prime fishing patch in the South China Sea, a move that could stoke tension after a years-long detente in Asia's most disputed waters. The Philippines expressed outrage on Sunday and shared images of Chinese coastguard policing a long, ball-buoy barrier near the Scarborough Shoal, a rocky outcrop 200 km (124 miles) from the Philippines and the site of years of intermittent flare-ups over sovereignty and fishing rights.