WORLD

President Donald Trump has ordered nearly all American troops to withdraw from Somalia, U.S. officials said on Friday, part of a global pullback by the Republican president before he leaves office next month that will also see him drawdown forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.

British and EU negotiators paused trade talks on Friday to call in their leaders to try to narrow gaps and get an agreement over the line, less than four weeks before Britain completes its Brexit journey out of the bloc.

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said on Friday a resolution to a bitter dispute with Qatar seemed "within reach" after Kuwait announced progress towards ending a row that Washington says hampers a united Gulf front against Iran.

Mexicans should cancel celebrations and even avoid exchanging Christmas presents to beat the coronavirus, the president said on Friday, pitching a frugal festive season to one of the world's largest capital cities as infections scaled new heights.

Kuwaitis vote in legislative polls on Saturday as the Gulf state faces its worst economic crisis in decades, posing a challenge for the government's often stormy relationship with parliament, that has hampered fiscal reform.

Canada could see the end of a nasty diplomatic dispute with China if the United States reaches a deal to release a Huawei executive from house arrest in Vancouver, but the affair shows that without the heft of its southern neighbor, Canada has no bargaining power with Beijing.

South Korea reported 583 new coronavirus infections on Saturday, down from the previous day's 629, which was the highest since a first wave peaked in February and early March.

Eighteen people have died after being trapped in a mine in China's southwestern city of Chongqing, the official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday, the region's second such accident in just over two months.

Israeli soldiers fatally shot a 15-year-old Palestinian on Friday during stone-throwing clashes in the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials said, although the Israeli military said its forces had not used live fire.