Iran, Cuba discuss expansion of reciprocal ties

Here is a round-up of global news developments:

• Turkish media say the army fired 40 rounds of artillery against Daesh targets in Syria. This, after three rockets fired from Syria hit the Turkish border town of Kilis. Also on Tuesday, two mortar shells fired from Syria targeted the Turkish border town of Karkamish. No word yet on possible casualties.
   
• Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim says his country is opposed to any Kurdish autonomous region in Syria. Yildirim says Ankara cares a lot about the territorial integrity of Syria. This, after the Kurdish People’s Protection Units claimed a border area in northeastern Syria as an autonomous region.
   
• Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has met with Cuban President Raul Castro in Havana. They discussed enhancement of mutual cooperation as well as regional and international issues. Also on the agenda of the talks were expansion of economic relations and the upcoming Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit to be hosted by Venezuela.
   
• A US district Judge has denied a motion by Texas university professors to block a new law that allows students to bring handguns into classrooms. Judge Lee Yeakel says the Texas legislature does not overstep its power to determine where a licensed individual may carry a concealed handgun.
   
• Tens of thousands of teachers in the Mexican state of Chiapas launch a strike to protest the country’s sweeping education reform. The strike has left public schools closed on the first day of the new school year. In response, the government suspended talks with the teachers union.
   
• Nigeria’s army claims to have killed some senior members of Boko Haram in the country’s northeast. The Nigerian air force says they were killed during an airstrike on the village of Taye in Borno State. It says leader of the terrorist group, Abubakar Shekau, is also fatally wounded.
   
• Forces loyal to Libya’s internationally-backed government have managed to seize more facilities from Daesh terrorists in the northern city of Sirte. The new achievement was made just a day after the army took control of the main mosque and a jail in the city.
   
• North Korea has threatened to launch a preemptive nuclear strike in the face of the ongoing joint military drills between South Korea and the United States. Pyongyang says it is ready to mount an attack at what it called all enemy combat groups. It described the drills as preparations for invasion.

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