World News Roundup: End of Merkel era begins as German CDU; Philippines, China vow cooperation for post-pandemic recovery and more

Saudi to reopen Qatar embassy in coming days: Saudi minister Saudi Arabia expects to re-open its embassy in Qatar in the coming days, Saudi's foreign minister said on Saturday, following a U.S.-backed detente last week in a three-year-old dispute between Arab states.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

End of Merkel era begins as German CDU picks new party leader

Germany's Christian Democrats elect a new chairman on Saturday, aiming to unite their conservative party behind a new leader who they hope can succeed Angela Merkel as chancellor when she steps down after federal elections in September. At stake is the leadership of Europe's biggest economy in the era after Merkel, who has vowed not to run again after becoming Europe's predominant leader since taking office in 2005 and proving a winner with German voters.

Philippines, China vow cooperation for post-pandemic recovery

Foreign ministers of China and the Philippines on Saturday committed to prioritising post-pandemic recovery efforts as senior Chinese diplomat Wang Yi wrapped up a week-long visit to four Southeast Asian countries. Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte in March imposed one of the world's longest and strictest lockdowns to contain the virus, grounding to a halt what was one of Asia's fastest growing economies before the pandemic.

Serbia receives million doses of China's Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine

A plane carrying one million doses of Sinopharm's COVID-19 vaccine arrived on Saturday in Serbia, making it the first European country to receive the Chinese vaccine for mass inoculation programmes. President Aleksandar Vucic was accompanied by Beijing's ambassador to the Balkan country at Belgrade's airport as containers carrying the vaccines were unloaded from an Air Serbia plane.

Uganda's Museveni heads for election win, rival alleges fraud

Long-time leader Yoweri Museveni was heading for a resounding win in Uganda's presidential election with nearly all votes counted on Saturday, but his main rival Bobi Wine alleged widespread fraud and said citizens should reject the result. With ballots from 91% of polling stations counted following Thursday's election, Museveni had won 5.6 million, or 58.9%, while main opposition candidate Wine had 3.3 million votes (34.6%), the Electoral Commission said just after 12 p.m. (0900 GMT). Final results were expected at 3 p.m (1200 GMT), it said.

Turkey says it will renew offer for joint working group on S-400s to Biden: NTV

Turkey will renew its offer to form a joint working group with the United States to look into the technical aspects of its acquisition of the Russian S-400 defence systems it acquired, once President-elect Joe Biden takes office, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was cited as saying on Friday. Cavusoglu made the comments to reporters on a flight home from Pakistan on Friday. Biden takes over from President Donald Trump on Wednesday.

Japan's suicides jump 16% in COVID-19 second wave after fall in first wave: study

Suicide rates in Japan have jumped in the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among women and children, even though they fell in the first wave when the government offered generous handouts to people, a survey found. The July-October suicide rate rose 16% from the same period a year earlier, a stark reversal of the February-June decline of 14%, according to the study by researchers at Hong Kong University and Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology.

Saudi to reopen Qatar embassy in coming days: Saudi minister

Saudi Arabia expects to re-open its embassy in Qatar in the coming days, Saudi's foreign minister said on Saturday, following a U.S.-backed detente last week in a three-year-old dispute between Arab states. It is just a matter of logistics, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan told journalists in Riyadh when asked about embassy reopenings.

Aftershock shakes Indonesia quake zone as rescuers hunt for survivors

An aftershock jolted Indonesia's Sulawesi island on Saturday as rescue workers combed the rubble of collapsed buildings for survivors after an earthquake killed at least 46 people on Friday and sent thousands of residents fleeing in panic. The country's disaster mitigation agency said no damage or casualties were reported from Saturday's magnitude-5.0 tremor in the West Sulawesi districts of Mamuju and Majene, which shook the area a day after the magnitude-6.2 quake.

Greece starts COVID-19 vaccinations among the elderly

Greece kicked off COVID-19 vaccinations among the elderly on Saturday, after first inoculating tens of thousands of frontline workers to fight the spread of the coronavirus. More than 75,000 healthcare workers and nursing home residents and carers have received the shot of the vaccine produced by Pfizer/BioNTech since Greece rolled out the plan along with other EU countries last month.

Iran fires long-range missiles into Indian Ocean in military drill: media

Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Saturday fired long-range ballistic missiles into the Indian Ocean on the second day of a military exercise, state media reported. The drill, which comes in the waning days of high tensions with U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, was conducted in the country's central desert region.

(With inputs from agencies.)