Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

EU plays down chance of any Iran talks outside Vienna

The European Union on Monday played down the prospect of serious talks on Iran’s nuclear programme outside the framework of negotiations between world powers and Iran in Vienna, with the EU’s foreign policy chief saying time was not on Iran’s side. A senior EU official said last week Iran was not ready yet to return to actual talks with world powers over reviving its 2015 nuclear programme and related U.S. sanctions but could discuss with the EU in Brussels texts from when negotiations ended in June.

Analysis-Lack of vaccination passport, testing threaten Japan’s reopening

Japan’s lack of a vaccination passport and limited testing capacity is threatening ambitions to reopen the economy at a crucial year-end period when restaurants earn up to a half of their annual revenue and travel agencies are at their busiest. This means businesses, wary of another pandemic wave through winter, are not rehiring laid-off staff or ordering more supplies until they know more about what the reopening scheme will look like and how long they can stay open. Local authorities have been largely left to fend for themselves, creating a patchwork of rules and compliance schemes.

Tigray forces say air strikes hit Ethiopia’s Mekelle, government denies

Rebellious Tigrayan forces accused the Ethiopian government of launching air strikes on the capital of Tigray region on Monday, and though a government official initially denied strikes, state-run media later reported the air force conducted an attack. The reported raid follows intensified fighting https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/ethiopian-offensive-two-northern-regions-intensifies-tigrayan-forces-say-2021-10-13 in two other Ethiopian regions, where the central government’s military is trying to recover territory taken by the northern province’s Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

U.S. concerned by possible Chinese, Russian uses of hypersonic weapons

Washington is concerned about hypersonic missile technology and its potential military applications by China and Russia, a U.S. arms control official said on Monday, after a media report that Beijing had tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic glide weapon. Hypersonic weapons are usually defined as missiles that fly more than five times the speed of sound, and a race is under way for the next generation of long-range weapons that are harder to detect and intercept.

Russia shuts mission to NATO in spy row retaliation

Russia said on Monday it would halt the activities of its diplomatic mission to NATO after the Western military alliance expelled eight Russians saying they were spies. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also said staff at NATO’s military mission in Moscow would be stripped of their accreditation from Nov. 1, and the alliance’s information office in the Russian capital would be shuttered.

Top U.S. envoy to Afghanistan stepping down

Top U.S. envoy to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad is stepping down, the State Department said on Monday, less than two months after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban takeover of the country. Khalilzad will be replaced by his deputy, Tom West, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement, noting that West will work closely with the U.S. embassy, which is now based in Doha, on U.S. interests in Afghanistan.

Haitians protest kidnappings as FBI says it will assist in effort to find missionaries

Haitians on Monday mounted a nationwide strike to protest a growing wave of kidnappings, days after the abduction of a group of missionaries prompted FBI involvement and fueled international concerns over gang violence in the crisis-stricken Caribbean nation. Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries on Sunday said a group of its missionaries, 16 Americans and one Canadian, were in Haiti to visit an orphanage when they were abducted https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/us-should-free-missionaries-haiti-without-ransom-lawmaker-2021-10-17 near the capital, Port-au-Prince. Security experts suspect the kidnapping was carried out by a gang known as 400 Mawozo.

Canada’s Trudeau visits First Nations community after snubbing indigenous leader’s invitation

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday visited the Tk’emlúps te Secwe̓pemc community and the unmarked burial sites of indigenous children after snubbing the First Nation’s invitation on Canada’s first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation last month. “I am here today to say I wish I had been here a few weeks ago, and I deeply regret it,” Trudeau told the community in British Columbia, adding he wanted to extend his hand to Tk’emlúps te Secwe̓pemc and all First Nations “who have every reason in the world to feel pessimistic and bleak about the future and instead choose hope.”

Gunmen kill at least 43 in northern Nigeria – state governor

Gunmen killed at least 43 people in an attack in northern Nigeria’s Sokoto state, the governor’s office said on Monday. The assault began at a weekly market in Goronyo on Sunday and continued into Monday morning, Sokoto Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal said in a statement.

Bolivia government says Haiti-linked group planned 2020 plot against President Arce

Members of a group involved in killing Haitian President Jovenel Moise in July had conspired to assassinate Bolivian President Luis Arce in 2020, Bolivia’s interior minister said on Monday. Eduardo del Castillo said at a news conference that the government had seen emails, audio recordings, immigration data and hotel stays that proved the failed plot against Arce, a socialist who swept to power last year after a divisive period of right-wing interim government.

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