North Korea plans to reopen communication with South Korea: state media
CNN
Communication lines between North Korea and South Korea will be restored from Monday at 9am local time, according to North Korean state media.
The reopening follows North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's vow last week to restore communication at an address to the country's rubberstamp legislature.
"North Korea has no reasons to provoke or hurt the South," Kim said.
Several United Nations agencies are again sounding the alarm on the rapid deterioration of humanitarian conditions in much of Gaza and the civilian toll of more than a year of Israeli military operations.
France condemned the brief detention of two consulate members after it said Israeli police forced their way into a French-owned holy site in Jerusalem, in what is the latest diplomatic spat in a series of events that have sent relations between the two plummeting.
An Israeli airstrike on a multi-story building in northern Gaza killed at least 27 people, relief officials said, as the Israeli military issued new evacuation orders in the area – where it is mounting a major offensive.
If his first term in the White House is any indication, President-elect Donald Trump is likely to keep the Middle East high on his agenda.
Rights groups say journalist Reza Valizadeh has been detained, amid heightened tensions between the United States and Iran.
A female student stripped to her underwear outside her university in Iran in what some student and rights groups say was a protest against the country’s strict Islamic dress code.
Israel is at a “high level of readiness” for a response from Iran, an Israeli military source told CNN, as US officials visited the Middle East for a renewed push to resolve the conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon. Follow live updates.