All about US's Rohingya-Myanmar report, Brazil's Bolsonaro lead

Exclusive: the U.S. accuses Myanmar military of 'planned and coordinated' Rohingya atrocities

A U.S. government investigation has found that Myanmar’s military waged a "well-planned and coordinated" campaign of mass killings, gang rapes and other atrocities against the Southeast Asian nation’s Rohingya Muslim minority. The U.S. State Department report, reviewed by Reuters ahead of its expected public release on Monday, could be used to justify further U.S. sanctions or other punitive measures against Myanmar authorities, said U.S. officials.

Brazil's Bolsonaro leads presidential race but Haddad closing gap: poll

Fernando Haddad, the presidential candidate for Brazil's leftist Workers Party (PT), is closing the gap with poll-leading far-right candidate Jair Bolsonaro for an Oct. 7 first-round vote and would beat him in a runoff, a survey released Monday showed. Bolsonaro held steady at 28 percent of voter approval in the first round as compared to the same Ibope poll released last week. Haddad gained three percentage points to hit 22 percent, according to the survey, released by the Estado de S.Paulo newspaper and the Globo TV network.

Rouhani warns the U.S. on sanctions, does not rule out talks

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Monday warned the United States against pursuing hostile policies toward Tehran, saying preventing Iran from exporting oil would be "very dangerous", though he did not rule out talks between the two countries. In May, U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of the 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran and announced sanctions against the OPEC member. Washington is pushing allies to cut imports of Iranian oil to zero and will restore sanctions on Iran's oil sales in November.

Russia to give Syria S-300 air defense after accusations against Israel

Russia said on Monday it would supply an S-300 surface-to-air missile system to Syria in two weeks despite strong Israeli objections, a week after Moscow accused Israel of indirectly causing the downing of a Russian military jet in Syria. The White House said it hoped Russia would reconsider the move, which U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton called a "significant escalation" of Syria's seven-year war.

Mattis dismisses Iran's revenge threat as tensions climb after the attack

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Monday dismissed Iran's threats of revenge after Saturday's deadly attack at a military parade in southwestern Iran and said it was "ludicrous" for Tehran to allege U.S. involvement. Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Monday the attackers who killed 25 people at a military parade had been paid by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and that Iran would "severely punish" those behind the bloodshed.

Palestinian schools, health centers at risk if funding gap not plugged: UNRWA

A U.N. agency that supports Palestinian refugees said schools and health centers are at risk if it is unable to plug a $185 million funding gap needed to keep operating until the end of the year, the agency's head said on Monday. "Currently we have money in the bank ... will last I presume somewhere into ... mid-October," said Pierre Krahenbuhl, Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in New York, where world leaders are attending the annual U.N. General Assembly.

Honduras president laments U.S. aid cuts, eyes role of China

The president of Honduras said on Monday cuts in U.S. support for Central America would hinder efforts to stem illegal immigration as he welcomed China's growing diplomatic presence in the region as an "opportunity." In an interview, President Juan Orlando Hernandez expressed regret that prior U.S. commitments to step up investment in Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador had been scaled back since his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump took office.

U.S.' Mattis looks for 'way ahead' after China scraps military talks

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Monday he was seeking a way ahead for military ties with China after Beijing postponed military talks in protest at last week's U.S. decision to impose sanctions over China's purchase of Russian weaponry. Mattis traveled to China in June in an attempt to deepen military-to-military dialogue with Beijing, even as Sino-U.S. trade tensions climb and anxiety in Washington grows over China's modernization of its armed forces and its increasingly muscular military posture in the South China Sea.

As U.S. sanctions near, Europe fails to protect Iran deal

At a meeting in Washington after Donald Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal in May, a senior U.S. official told European diplomats that their efforts to save the deal by protecting EU investment in the Islamic republic were pointless. "You can't," the official said, and with just six weeks until the next wave of U.S. sanctions hits Iran on Nov. 4, European diplomats acknowledge he was right.

Trump says expects an announcement of the new summit with North Korea's Kim 'pretty soon'

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he expected the second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to be announced "pretty soon" but that the location had yet to be determined. Trump, during a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in at the United Nations, said: "Chairman Kim has been really very open and terrific, frankly. I think he wants to see something happen."

(With inputs from Reuters)