WATCH PRESS TV NEWS HEADLINES

Here is a brief look at Press TV newsroom's headlines from 18:00 GMT, November 7, 2017 to 08:00 GMT, November 8, 2017.

Iran’s reaction to Saudi threats

Iran has called on the United Nations to pressure Saudi Arabia to respect international law and refrain from threatening other countries with the use of military force. Iran’s permanent UN Representative Gholamali Khoshroo made the call in a letter to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the President of the Security Council. Khoshroo rejected Riyadh’s allegations accusing Iran of supplying missiles to Yemen to be used against Saudi Arabia. The envoy slammed the Saudi threat to use force against Iran as a clear violation of the UN Charter. He accused Saudi officials of trying to avert attention from their war crimes in Yemen by making what he called provocative statements. Khorshroo also blamed Saudi Arabia and its allies for deteriorating the humanitarian crisis in Yemen through a blockade of the Arab country. He reiterated Iran’s position that the only solution to the crisis in Yemen was an all-inclusive Yemeni-Yemeni-led political settlement.

Saudi freezing bank accounts

Saudi banks have frozen more than 1,200 accounts belonging to individuals and companies in the kingdom. Bankers and lawyers say the move is part of the government's anti-corruption purge. The number is continuing to rise. Dozens of royal family members, officials and business executives have been detained in the crackdown. They are facing allegations of money laundering, bribery, extorting officials and taking advantage of public office for personal gain. Since Sunday, the central bank has been expanding the list of accounts it requires lenders to freeze on an almost hourly basis. The affected companies include listed and unlisted firms across many sectors.

‘Illegal’ US presence in Syria

Damascus says the military presence of the United States and Turkey on Syrian soil is illegal. The political and media adviser to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Damascus would deal with the US and Turkey as “invader countries”. Bouthaina Shaaban also made it clear that the Syrian government would not give up on the city of Raqqah. The city was Daesh’s main stronghold in Syria before it was captured last month by US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. She called on the Kurdish forces to learn a lesson from what happened in Iraqi Kurdistan, in a reference to the failed secession attempt there.

UK prince offshore profit

A set of documents in the newly-released Paradise Papers leaks has shown that the private estate of UK’s Prince Charles has invested millions of pounds in offshore funds and companies. The investment includes financial backing to a forestry firm that lobbied to modify deals on climate change. The Paradise Papers also revealed that about 10 million pounds of the private funds of Britain's Queen Elizabeth were placed in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda. Meanwhile, in the latest effort to clamp down on tax evasion, the European Union has pushed for creating Europe’s first-ever blacklist of tax havens. The EU ministers are to draw up an official list of unwanted tax havens in December, whittling down an initial list of 92 countries finalized last year.

UK’s complicity in Saudi crimes

Saudi Arabia’s devastating war on Yemen seems to have brought an enormous fortune for Britain, thanks to massive sales of arms to the Arab kingdom. The British media report that the UK’s exports of bombs and missiles to Saudi Arabia have increased by almost five times since the start of the aggression in March 2015. The war has acted like a cash cow, generating more than six-billion dollars for the British government. The UK’s continued arms sales have provoked huge outcry from rights groups. They say there is “a mountain of evidence” that British-made weapons are being used to commit war crimes by targeting hospitals, schools, and weddings. The bombing campaign has killed more than 13,000 Yemenis, mostly civilian.

Trump's South Korea visit

The US president has attacked the North Korean government as a cruel dictatorship, calling for an international isolation of the country. Addressing the South Korean National Assembly, Donald Trump accused Pyongyang of seeking conflict with other countries to cover up its failures at home. He said the US would not allow North Korea to intimidate it or threaten its cities with destruction. Trump said the world could not tolerate what he called the menace of a rogue regime that threatened it with nuclear devastation. He called on all nations to unite to deny North Korea any form of support or acceptance. The remarks come a day after Trump signaled a willingness to negotiate with Pyongyang over its nuclear program.

Trump's China trip

US President, Donald Trump, has landed in China for talks aimed at mutual trade as well as North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs. Trump is in Beijing on the third leg of his first Asian tour, which previously took him to Japan and South Korea. He has been received by his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping upon arrival. They are scheduled to talk about a trade surplus between Beijing and Washington, which narrowed last month. Trump is also expected to ask his Chinese counterpart to cut financial links with North Korea and implement the UN Security Council resolutions against it. Earlier in South Korea, Trump took a tough stance against Pyongyang, calling for a united front against Pyongyang’s nuclear and missile programs.

Democratic poll victories

Democrats have won high-profile state and mayoral elections held in the United States on Tuesday. The Democratic Party nominees defeated their Republican rivals and picked up the post of governorship in the states of Virginia and New Jersey. They also gained major victories in mayoral elections in some big cities, with the Democratic National Committee saying they’ve won almost across the country. One of those cities was New York City where Bill de Blasio won the second term to remain mayor for another four-year term. The victories are seen as a heavy defeat for Republican President Donald Trump who’s facing strong criticism over what is seen as his politics of division.

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