World News in Brief: December 16

Mount Soputan volcano in North Sulawesi province of central Indonesia erupted on December 16, spewing a column of ashes by up to 7.5 km to the sky, spokesman of national disaster management agency Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told Xinhua in a text message.

* Thousands of protesters took to the streets of French cities on December 15 in the fifth weekend of demonstrations against Emmanuel Macron's government, ignoring calls to hold off after a gun attack in Strasbourg this week.

* Moscow has not received any response from Washington to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu's proposal to discuss disagreements concerning the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement on December 15.

* Britain's exit from the European Union was heading for an impasse, one senior minister said on December 15, after a week in which Prime Minister Theresa May failed to win EU assurances on her deal and pulled a vote because UK lawmakers would defeat it.

* Australia formally recognises west Jerusalem as Israel's capital, reversing decades of Middle East policy, but will not move its embassy there immediately, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on December 15.

* The Cairo-based Arab League (AL) condemned in a statement on December 15 Australia's recent decision to recognize West Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

* China, Afghanistan and Pakistan reached broad consensus on trilateral cooperation during the foreign ministers' dialogue between the three sides, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the remarks when speaking to the press after attending the 2nd China-Afghanistan-Pakistan Foreign Ministers' Dialogue in Kabul on December 15.

* German Chancellor Angela Merkel has emphasized the importance of European integration as a path to peace and security, calling for addressing challenges such as digitalization and globalization.

* The European Union (EU) granted Morocco €148 million to address the hike in irregular migration, Moroccan official MAP news agency reported Saturday.

* Burundi will attend a forthcoming summit of heads of state of the six-member East African Community (EAC) due on December 27 in Tanzania's Arusha, after it was postphoned due to Burundi's absence, Burundian president spokesperson Jean Claude Karerwa said Saturday.

* US President Donald Trump said on December 15 that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke will step down at the end of this year.

* Afghan President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani met in Kabul on December 15 with visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, with both sides expressing willingness to deepen cooperation and combat terrorism.

* Two Tu-160 strategic bombers have returned to their home base in Russia after an international visit to Venezuela, the Russian Defense Ministry said on December 15.

* The Pakistan Army said on December 15 it had built 233 forts along the border with Afghanistan as part of its border fencing plan to stop cross-border movement of militants.

* Affected by "adverse atmospheric diffusion conditions," heavily polluted weather is like to haunt the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei area and its surrounding regions in the next 10 days, said the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China in an air quality report for the rest of December.

* Cyprus recorded the largest decrease among EU countries in Non-Performing Loans (NPLs) between June 2017 and June 2018, the European Banking Authority (EBA) said in a report Saturday. It said Cyprus brought down non-performing loans by 8.6 percent, followed by Portugal with 5 percent and Ireland with 4.8 percent.

* At least 20 Afghan civilians, including 12 children, were killed in an airstrike targeting a Taliban commander in the eastern province of Kunar late on December 14, local officials said.

Xinhua,Reuters