Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

China’s Xi vows ‘reunification’ with Taiwan, but holds off threatening force

Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed on Saturday to achieve “peaceful reunification” with Taiwan, and did not directly mention the use of force after a week of tensions with the Chinese-claimed island that sparked international concern. Taiwan responded to Xi by calling on Beijing to abandon its coercion, reiterating that only Taiwan’s people could decide their future.

Taiwan president to pledge defence of sovereignty, democracy

Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen will pledge to defend the island’s sovereignty and democracy in a major speech on Sunday, saying it faces challenges more complex and severe than ever, at a time when tensions with China have risen. Democratic Taiwan, claimed by China as its own territory, has come under increasing military and political pressure from Beijing, which included this month four straight days of mass incursions by China’s air force into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone.

Czech opposition grabs election win from PM Babis, wants to form government

Czech centre-right opposition group Together beat Prime Minister Andrej Babis’s ANO party in a surprise parliamentary election result on Saturday and pledged to form a new government with allies who will have a combined majority of seats. Together and another opposition group, the liberal Pirates/Mayors, were on track to win a combined 108 seats in the 200-seat lower house of parliament, a calculation by Czech Television showed.

Bolshoi Theatre performer killed in accident on stage during opera

A performer at Moscow’s renowned Bolshoi Theatre was killed on Saturday in an accident on stage during an opera, the theatre said. The Bolshoi, one of Russia’s most prestigious theatres, said the incident occurred during a set change in Sadko, an opera by Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.

Czech voters oust communists from parliament for first time since 1948

Czech voters evicted the communists from parliament on Saturday for the first time since the end of World War Two, voting out a party whose forebears ruled the central European nation from 1948 until the Velvet Revolution of 1989 that ushered in democracy. The communists jailed tens of thousands in forced labor camps in the 1950s and brutally repressed dissidents such as playwright-turned-president Vaclav Havel, but remained in parliament following the revolution.

Gunmen kill at least 20 in attack in northwest Nigeria

At least 20 people were killed in Nigeria’s Sokoto state when gunmen attacked a market and torched cars, as armed gangs continue to wreak havoc in the northwest part of the country, a state official and local member of parliament said on Saturday. Northwestern Nigeria has since last December witnessed a wave of kidnappings of school children and villagers for ransoms by bandits, disrupting everyday life for millions of citizens.

Hundreds detained in security crackdown in Kashmir-Indian police officials

Security forces in Indian Kashmir have detained more than 300 people for questioning in recent days as they try to stem a wave of targeted killings that has spread panic among minority groups, two police officials said on Saturday. Three Hindus and a Sikh were killed in the Muslim-majority region this week, leading police to say that religious minorities are being targeted.

Verification of sanctions relief a top issue in nuclear talks -Iran

A main concern of Iran in any talks to rescue the 2015 nuclear deal would be around ways to verify the lifting of U.S. sanctions, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Saturday. The talks, which aim to bring Washington and Tehran back into compliance with the 2015 nuclear pact aimed at curbing the Iranian enrichment programme, were adjourned in June after hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi was elected Iran’s president.

Britain to stress need for ‘significant change’ in Northern Ireland protocol

Britain will tell the European Union again next week that “significant change” to the Northern Ireland protocol is vital for the restoration of genuinely good relations between London and Brussels. The protocol was part of the Brexit divorce settlement Prime Minister Boris Johnson negotiated with the EU, but London has said it must be rewritten less than a year after taking force due to the barriers businesses face when importing British goods into the province.

Austria’s Kurz steps down over corruption probe to save coalition

Austria’s conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz resigned on Saturday to pull his coalition government back from the brink of collapse after the junior party demanded his head because he has been placed under investigation on suspicion of corruption. The move by Kurz, who denies wrongdoing, satisfied his coalition partner, the Greens, and came just three days before a special session of parliament at which they were preparing to back a motion of no-confidence that would have forced him out.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)