RUSSIA: A senior Kremlin official has called for closer policy co-ordination between Moscow and Beijing to counter what he described as Western efforts to contain them as he hosted China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi for security talks.

Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council, chaired by President Vladimir Putin, told Mr Wang that Moscow “seeks progressive development and strengthening of the Russian-Chinese relations of comprehensive partnership and strategic co-operation.”

AZERBAIJAN: Authorities in Azerbaijan announced today the start of an “anti-terrorist operation” targeting Armenian military positions.

A statement from the Azerbaijan defence ministry said that the operation began hours after four soldiers and two civilians died in landmine explosions in the Nagorno-Karabakh region.

The ministry said: “Positions on the front line and in-depth, long-term firing points of the formations of Armenia’s armed forces, as well as combat assets and military facilities are incapacitated using high-precision weapons.”

SUDAN: The United Nations children’s agency Unicef said today that at least 1,200 children have died of measles and malnutrition in refugee camps since May.

Unicef said that more than 50,000 children are now in need of treatment for the most lethal form of malnutrition every month in Sudan but they were unable to meet the need because a number of feeding stations have been forced to close because of the fighting.

KURDISTAN: An air strike on a military airport in northern Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region killed three people on Monday, local officials said.

The region’s counter-terrorism service said that the attack on the Arbat Airport, about 17 miles south-east of the city of Sulaymaniyah, killed three of its personnel and injured three members of the Kurdish Peshmerga forces.