16 Dec 2018; AFP: Nations on Sunday struck a deal to breathe life into the landmark 2015 Paris climate treaty after marathon UN talks that failed to match the ambition the world's most vulnerable countries need to avert dangerous global warming.

Delegates from nearly 200 states finalised a common rule book designed to deliver the Paris goals of limiting global temperature rises to well below two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit).

TEHRAN, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said that the U.S. sanctions have failed to change Iran's policies, Tasnim news agency reported on Monday.

"Sanctions have never worked," Zarif was quoted as saying.

"They hurt Iranians but don't change (Iran's) policy," he added.

In May, U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the Iranian international nuclear deal, calling it "the worst deal ever."

MOSCOW, December 17. /TASS/. /TASS/. President of Syria Bashar Assad praised efforts of Russia and Iran to restrain the Western interference in the process of the political settlement of the Syrian conflict, SANA news agency reported on Monday.

According to the agency, during a meeting in Damascus on Sunday with Senior Adviser to the Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Jaberi Ansari, President Assad "stressed the importance of efforts exerted by the friendly and allied countries of Syria, particularly Iran and Russia."

16 Dec 2018; AFP: Georgia on Sunday swore in its first female president, Salome Zurabishvili as opposition parties continue to denounce her election as fraudulent and demand snap parliamentary polls.

The inauguration paved the way for a new constitution to come into force, transforming the country into a parliamentary republic with a largely ceremonial president.

The event was held in the mediaeval town of Telavi in Georgia's eastern winemaking region of Kakheti.

New Delhi, Dec 17 (PTI) Dengue cases in Delhi have mounted to 4,704 this year even with the onset of winter when conditions become unfavourable for the breeding of mosquito larvae, a municipal report said Monday.

At least four people, including a minor boy, have died in the city due to the vector-borne disease this year till December second week.

Three of the victims were identified by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) as Aman Tiwari (13), Sanskriti (21) and Gagan (23).

New Delhi, Dec 17 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday announced USD 1.4 billion financial assistance to Maldives after he held extensive talks with President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih during which both sides vowed to deepen security cooperation in the Indian Ocean region.

The two countries also inked four pacts, including one on visa facilitation.

"We held successful talks in a cordial atmosphere. We vowed to strengthen ties," Modi said in his press statement, with Solih by his side.

MOSCOW, December 17. /TASS/. Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Anton Siluanov has signed a directive requesting state-run companies move to locally-produced software by 2021, Vedomosti business daily wrote on Monday with reference to the document’s copy.

New Delhi, Dec 17 (PTI) A fresh Bill to make the practice of tripe talaq among Muslims a penal offence was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday to replace an ordinance issued in September.

Under the proposed law, giving instant triple talaq will be illegal and void and will attract a jail term of three years for the husband.

The Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill, 2018 would supercede an earlier Bill passed in the Lok Sabha and pending in the Rajya Sabha.

ANKARA, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- The Turkish government has granted citizenship to a total of 72,000 Syrian refugees, Hurriyet daily reported on Monday.

Turkey issued citizenship to 36,000 Syrian adults and 36,000 children, said Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu addressing lawmakers at the parliament.

Some 380,000 Syrian refugee babies were born in Turkey, the minister said, expressing his individual wish to issue them citizenship as well.

"That will be the biggest investment in our brothership for another century," he stated.

New Delhi, Dec 17 (PTI) Former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan has cautioned that transfer of excess reserve to the government may bring down rating of the central bank.

Rating downgrade of the RBI from 'AAA' would make borrowing costlier for the central bank and will have implication for the entire economy.

KANPUR: Teachers' participation in PhD entrance committee and declaration of faculty senior list at University level were the main points which were approved at the executive committee meeting of Kanpur University Teachers’ Association (KUTA) held at VSS Degree College.

KANPUR: A brawl between resident doctors and medical students resulted in intense punches at the Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi Medical College annual programme ‘Tarang’ organised on its campus here.  The junior doctors anyhow controlled the situation and got them confined into the Boys’ Hostel-2.