World News in Brief: November 11

Cuba on Saturday (November 10) announced that the number of international tourists to the Caribbean nation so far this year has reached 4 million despite a sharp drop in US visitors due to Washington's policy which restricts Americans' traveling to the island.

* Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen will participate in the 33rd ASEAN summit and related meetings, to be held from November 13 to 15 in Singapore, said a foreign ministry's statement on Saturday.

* A Chinese agricultural official Saturday called for closer agricultural cooperation among China, Japan and the Republic of Korea (RoK) in Beijing.

* French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel clasped hands on November 10 during a solemn joint ceremony at a historic site, in a vow of peace and unity. The two leaders made pilgrimage to Compiègne in eastern France, where the Allies and Germany signed an initial ceasefire accord which put an end to the First World War.

* Four British ministers who back remaining in the European Union are on the verge of quitting Theresa May's government over Brexit, the Sunday Times reported, as pressures built on the prime minister from all sides.

* Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said on November 10 he may meet US President Donald Trump in Paris during the commemorations to mark the 100th anniversary of the end of World War One.

* Indonesia authorities said on Saturday they had stopped the search for victims of a plane crash that killed all 189 people on board, but would keep looking for the Lion Air flight's second black box, the cockpit voice recorder.

* Parts of northwest China will be swept by snow, and Beijing and neighboring areas are expected to see smog in the coming week, the country's top observatory said on November 11.

* Iraq can continue to import natural gas and energy supplies from Iran for a period of 45 days, the United States has said, several days after reimposing sanctions on Tehran's oil sector.

* Britain may not be able to reach a divorce deal with the European Union because a number of contentious issues still stand in the way, trade minister Liam Fox said on Saturday.

* The International Organization for Migration (IOM) on November 10 said that 120 illegal Nigerian immigrants were voluntarily repatriated from southern Libya to their country.

* On the eve of the centenary of the World War I armistice, French President Emmanuel Macron met in Paris with visiting US President Donald Trump Saturday, as the latter called for more fairness in security cooperation with Europe.

* The Libyan coast guards on November 8 rescued 44 illegal immigrants off the coastal city of Zuwara, some 120 km west of the capital Tripoli.

* The death toll of the recent US-led airstrikes on areas in eastern Syria has risen to 41 as the Syrian Foreign Ministry renewed calls for an international investigation into the coalition's "crimes."

* As many as 40 Taliban militants, including their local commander, were killed and 25 others wounded, following the recent 24-hour conflicts in Afghanistan's northern Kunduz province, an official said Saturday.

* The death toll from Northern California's massive wildfire, dubbed Camp Fire, climbed to 23 after local officials confirmed 14 more bodies have been recovered from the fire area on Saturday.

* Deals for intended one-year purchases of goods and services worth a total of US$57.83 billion were reached at the first China International Import Expo (CIIE), which concluded Saturday in Shanghai, official data showed.

* The use of plastic bags during 2018 decreased by 70 percent compared to the previous year, the Albanian Deputy Minister of Environment and Tourism Ornela Cuci declared in an interview for Albanian Telegraphic Agency on Saturday.

* Seven villagers were killed on November 10 night when landslides struck Nias Selatan district of Indonesia's North Sumatra province, head of provincial disaster management agency Riadil Ahir Lubis said on November 11.

Xinhua,Reuters