Briefly

SYRIA

Foreign minister Moallem dies at 79

Syria's foreign minister Walid al-Moallem, a career diplomat who became one of the country's most prominent faces to the outside world during the civil conflict, died on Monday. He was 79.Born in 1941, Moallem studied economics and political science at Cairo University in Egypt and graduated in 1963. He started working in the Syrian Foreign Ministry in 1964 and was sent to work with Syrian diplomatic missions in several countries. He had served as the Syrian ambassador to the United States from 1990 to 1999, during which time he participated in Syrian-Israeli peace talks. He was appointed foreign minister in 2006 and held the post until his death. The soft-spoken diplomat accused the US and others in the West of fueling his country's conflict in which more than half a million people have been killed and more than 5.6 million have become refugees.

VENEZUELA

Deal for 10m doses of Russia's Sputnik V

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said on Sunday that his government has agreed to buy 10 million doses of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19. The vaccines will come in the first quarter of 2021, Maduro said at an event in Caracas broadcast on government television, adding: "Venezuela will manufacture the Russian vaccine in Venezuelan laboratories." In August, Russia became the first country to register a vaccine against COVID-19, which it named Sputnik V after the world's first satellite launched into space in 1957. Its developers reported initial test results showing the vaccine to be 92 percent effective. Since the pandemic arrived in Venezuela in March, the government has confirmed 96,933 infections and 848 deaths.

LIBYA

Latest sea rescue sparks UN warning

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees on Sunday said that 77 migrants had been rescued off the Libyan coast. "We reiterate that Libya is not a safe port to return refugees and migrants to," the UNHCR said. Because of insecurity and chaos that followed the fall of its leader Muammar Gadhafi in 2011, Libya has become a preferred point of departure for thousands of migrants who want to cross the Mediterranean Sea toward Europe. According to the International Organization for Migration, more than 11,000 migrants have been rescued and returned to Libya so far in 2020. The IOM also said that hundreds of migrants have died and hundreds of others have gone missing on the Central Mediterranean route this year.

Agencies - Xinhua