S ARABIA TO CONVENE OIC MEET ON K-ISSUE Saudi Arabia has agreed to convene a meeting of foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Kashmir, according to reports in the Pakistan media. The move is being seen as Saudi Arabia's attempt to balance ties between India and Pakistan as well as reward Islamabad for not attending a multination summit in Kuala Lumpur that was being seen as an attempt to rival the Saudi-led OIC. According to media reports, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan conveyed the message to his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi during a meeting in Islamabad. The Pakistan Foreign Office said "the two foreign ministers discussed OIC's role in the advancement of the cause of Kashmir" and Qureshi "highlighted the Indian Government's actions with regard to CAA and NRC and the systematic targeting of minorities in India, particularly Muslims". The 57-member grouping is largely seen as a talking shop, especially on Palestine, but its statements provide a face-safer to member-governments in front of their domestic audience on issues they haven't been able to resolve on their own. PUTIN THANKS TRUMP FOR TIP RUSSIA SAYS FOILED ATTACKS Russia said on Sunday it had thwarted terrorism attacks reportedly planned in St. Petersburg thanks to a tip from Washington, bringing personal thanks again from President Vladimir Putin to his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump. Russian news agencies cited the Federal Security Service (FSB) as saying that thanks to the information, two Russians were detained on Dec. 27 on suspicion of plotting attacks during New Year festivities in St. Petersburg. The Kremlin said Putin passed on his gratitude to Trump during a phone call on Sunday for the tip from U.S. special services. It gave no more details. Diplomatic ties between Washington and Moscow are fraught over disagreements from Ukraine to Syria and allegations of Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election, but Trump and Putin have managed to keep personal lines open. Two years ago, the Russian leader also phoned Trump to thank him for a tip that Russia said helped prevent a bomb attack on a cathedral in St. Petersburg. Russia has repeatedly been the target of attacks by militant groups including Islamic State. Sunday's Kremlin statement said Putin and Trump agreed to continue bilateral cooperation to tackle terrorism. TALIBAN COUNCIL AGREES TO CEASE-FIRE IN AFGHANISTAN The Taliban's ruling council agreed Sunday to a temporary cease-fire in Afghanistan, providing a window in which a peace agreement with the United States can be signed, officials from the insurgent group said. They didn't say when it would begin. A cease-fire had been demanded by Washington before any peace agreement could be signed. A peace deal would allow the U.S. to bring home its troops from Afghanistan and end its 18-year military engagement there, America's longest. There was no immediate response from Washington. The U.S. wants any deal to include a promise from the Taliban that Afghanistan would not be used as a base by terrorist groups. The U.S. currently has an estimated 12,000 troops in Afghanistan. The Taliban chief must approve the cease-fire decision but that was expected. The duration of the cease-fire was not specified but it was suggested it would last for 10 days. It was also not specified when the cease-fire would begin. N.KOREA'S KIM STRESSED 'POSITIVE AND OFFENSIVE SECURITY MEASURES' AT KEY PARTY MEETING North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for "positive and offensive measures" to ensure security at a ruling party meeting on Sunday ahead of a year-end deadline he has set for de-nuclearisation talks with the United States, state media KCNA said on Monday. Kim convened a meeting of top Workers' Party officials on Saturday to pore over important policy matters amid rising tension over his deadline for Washington to soften its stance in stalled negotiations aimed at dismantling Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programmes. During a second-day session, Kim suggested action in the areas of foreign affairs, the munitions industry and armed forces, stressing the need to take "positive and offensive measures for fully ensuring the sovereignty and security of the country," KCNA said, without elaborating. Kim discussed state management and economic issues, including measures to improve agriculture, science, education, public health and the environment, it said, as the country's economy has been hit by international sanctions over its weapons programmes. He "presented the tasks for urgently correcting the grave situation of the major industrial sectors of the national economy," KCNA said. The meeting was still under way, KCNA said. TWITTER SYSTEM 'OUTAGE' BRIEFLY BLOCKED TRUMP WHISTLEBLOWER TWEET A tweet from U.S. President Donald Trump that identified an intelligence analyst as the alleged whistleblower who helped spark his impeachment was temporarily blocked at the weekend, with Twitter blaming an outage that affected a number of user accounts. In recent days, Trump shared an unsubstantiated media report and a second post that appeared to name the intelligence community member. However, the second tweet, from the President's personal account, was not visible on Saturday to all of his 68 million followers. It was visible again on Sunday afternoon, although the original account that shared the alleged whistleblower's name had been deleted. "Due to an outage with one of our systems, tweets on account profiles were visible to some, but not others," Twitter Support said. "We're still working on fixing this and apologize for any confusion." A spokeswoman for the social media platform confirmed that the U.S. president's account was among those affected. Violation of rules The spokeswoman added that, per Twitter policy, any tweets that included private information about an individual, including the alleged whistleblower, would be in violation of its rules. Names are not considered private information, she said. Democrats, some Republicans, and members of the U.S. intelligence community have strongly objected to the effort to reveal the whistleblower's identify, calling it inappropriate and possibly illegal. UKRAINE COMPLETES ALL-FOR-ALL PRISONER SWAP WITH PRO-RUSSIAN SEPARATISTS Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine completed a full prisoner swap on Sunday after bussing remaining detainees in the five-year conflict to an exchange point in the breakaway Donbass region. The exchange is likely to be hailed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as proof he is making good on a promise to bring captured Ukrainians home. But some in Ukraine are unhappy that riot police accused of opening fire on protesters against the country's Russia-friendly then-president Viktor Yanukovich in 2014 are among those who were handed over. The office of Ukraine's President said that 76 former pro-government detainees had returned home. "[They] are safe in Ukraine-controlled territory," it said. The swap, at a checkpoint near the industrial town of Horlivka in the Donetsk region, had initially been expected see Ukraine hand over 87 separatists in exchange for 55 pro-government Ukrainians. "Today's prisoner exchange in #Donbass will bring relief to the persons involved and their families, but it will not bring the [peace] settlement any closer," Dmitri Trenin, head of the Moscow Carnegie Center and a former colonel in the Russian army, wrote on social media. AUSTRALIA FIRES: THOUSANDS TOLD TO EVACUATE IN VICTORIA Soaring temperatures and strong winds have sparked new fires in the Australian state of Victoria, where tens of thousands of people were urged to flee. Many tourists have heeded warnings to leave the East Gippsland holiday region - but others remain. The worsening weather started blazes and fanned existing ones across the nation's south-east on Monday. Crews across four states were bracing for a day of extreme fire danger. More than 100 blazes continue to rage across Australia. Extreme fire warnings have been issued for the states of Victoria, South Australia, New South Wales (NSW) and Tasmania. Some of the largest blazes are raging near the city of Sydney in NSW, where more than a quarter of a million people have signed a petition calling for the New Year's Eve fireworks to be cancelled and the money spent on fighting fires. US: 5 STABBED AT SYNAGOGUE IN NEW YORK DURING HANUKKAH CELEBRATIONS A man attacked a Hanukkah celebration at a rabbi's home north of New York City late Saturday, stabbing and wounding five people before fleeing in a vehicle, police said. The attack appeared to be the latest in a string targeting Jews in the region, including a massacre at a kosher grocery store in New Jersey earlier this month. Police said the stabbings happened at around 10 p.m. in Monsey, one of several Hudson Valley towns that have seen an influx in large numbers of Hasidic Jews in recent years. Ramapo Police Chief Brad Weidel said hours later that New York City police had located a vehicle and possible suspect being sought in connection with the stabbing. New York City Police wouldn't immediately confirm whether anyone was in custody. Top state officials, including Governor Andrew Cuomo and Attorney General Leticia James, released statements condemning the attack. THIS NEW CLIMATE PLAN CAN HELP MITIGATE IMPACTS OF GLOBAL WARMING Stanford University scientists Mark Z. Jacobson and his team focussed on low-cost, stable grid solutions in 24 world regions, that comprise of 143 countries. According to their projections, transitioning to clean, renewable energy could reduce worldwide energy needs by at least 57 per cent, create 28.6 million more jobs, and reduce energy, health, and climate costs by 91 per cent compared with a business-as-usual analysis. As per the new plan, the roadmap utlises updated data about how each country's energy use is changing, acknowledges lower costs and greater availability of renewable energy and storage technology. It includes new countries in its analysis and accounts for recently-built clean, renewable infrastructure in some countries. "There are a lot of countries that have committed to doing something to counteract the growing impacts of global warming, but they still don't know exactly what to do," said Jacobson to PTI. According to the roadmap, to increase energy efficiency, electrification of all energy sectors is required which can reduce energy use, and for the development of wind, water, and solar infrastructure that can supply 80 per cent of all power by 2030 and 100 per cent of all power by 2050. The new model also says that efficiency of electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles over fossil fuel vehicles, notably of the electrified industry over fossil fuel industry, could substantially decrease overall energy use. The researchers predict that while the eventual transition to wind, water, and solar requires an initial investment of USD 73 trillion worldwide, the cost-to-benefit ratio over time would pay for itself through energy sales. In addition, clean, renewable energy is cheaper to generate over time than are fossil fuels, so the investment reduces annual energy costs significantly, they said.