WORLD

Deal or no deal, British companies will have to confront a wall of bureaucracy that threatens chaos at the border if they want to sell into the world's biggest trading bloc when life after Brexit begins on January 1.

U.S. Secretary of State of Mike Pompeo landed in India on Monday, the first leg of a five-day Asian trip aimed at strengthening strategic ties in the face of growing Chinese influence across the region.

The executive committee of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) has decided to postpone the party congress planned for Dec. 4 to elect a new leader, sources within the CDU told Reuters on Monday.

Opponents of Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha urged him on Monday to stop using the monarchy to justify his hold on power and resign, in remarks made to a special session of parliament called by the former junta leader to discuss months of protests.

Kurdish authorities in northern Iraq said on Monday they had foiled a plan to attack foreign diplomats in their autonomous regional capital of Erbil, more than a year after the killing of a Turkish consular official there.

The United States carried out an airstrike against the insurgent Taliban in central Afghanistan on Sunday evening in order to defend Afghan security forces, the U.S. Forces spokesman said.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan called on Facebook to ban Islamophobic content on its platform, warning of a spike in radicalisation amongst Muslims, hours after he hit out at the French president for "attacking Islam".

European leaders warned of difficult months ahead as the resurgent COVID-19 pandemic forced authorities to impose new restrictions to try to curb the spread of the disease.

China will impose sanctions on U.S. entities participating in Washington's arms sales to Taiwan, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Monday.