TUNIS (Sputnik) - Kais Said, a law professor, is leading the first round of Tunisia's presidential election with 19 per cent of the vote after 27 per cent of the ballots have been counted, the country's elections commission (ISIE) said Monday.
A second round will be held if no candidate receives at least 50 per cent.
Said is followed by media magnate, Nabil Karoui, who was detained in August on suspicion of tax evasion and money laundering, with 14.9 per cent of the total votes. Abdelfattah Mourou, the co-founder and vice president of the Islamist Ennahdha Party, comes in third with 13.1 per cent.
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SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un invited U.S. President Donald Trump to visit Pyongyang in a letter sent in August amid stalled denuclearization talks, a South Korean newspaper reported on Monday, citing diplomatic sources.
Kim, in the letter sent in the third week of August, spoke of his "willingness” for a third summit and extended an invitation for Trump to visit the North Korean capital of Pyongyang, the Joongang Ilbo newspaper reported, citing an unidentified source.
Trump on Aug. 9 said he had received a "very beautiful letter” from Kim.
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PEKANBARU, Indonesia (Reuters) – Indonesia closed more schools on Monday in parts of the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, as well as providing oxygen at health centers to help treat some of the thousands suffering respiratory infections due to choking smoke from forest fires.
Indonesia and neighboring countries in Southeast Asia are regularly hit by smoky haze from slash-and-burn clearances of forests for timber and palm oil plantations, but conditions this year have been the worst since 2015 due to an El Nino weather pattern causing an extended dry spell.
In recent days, thick smog from fires has been drifting across cities in Borneo and Sumatra. Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency says more than 328,000 hectares of forests and peatlands have been burnt since January.
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 KHARTOUM (Xinhua) -- Sudan and Eritrea on Monday agreed on cooperation in military and security fields.
Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki concluded an official visit to Sudan that started on Saturday, which is considered the first since 2014.
Upon Afwerki's departure at Khartoum airport, Sudan's Foreign Minister Asma Mohamed Abdullah announced a joint communiqué about the two countries' agreement on cooperation in many fields.
"The Republic of Sudan and Eritrea have agreed to cooperate in the following fields. Cooperation in the defense and military fields, including the ground forces, the air force, the marine forces, the defense industries, training and medical services," the communiqué said.
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MEXICO CITY (Dispatches) - Forensic scientists in Mexico have managed to piece together 44 bodies buried in a well in Jalisco state.
Discovered just outside the city of Guadalajara, the human remains were hidden in 119 black bags.
The remains were discovered earlier in September when local residents began complaining about the smell.
Jalisco is the heartland of one of Mexico's most violent drug gangs and this is the second major find of bodies in the state this year.
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LONDON (Dispatches) - Riot police and anti-government protesters have clashed in Honduras, as the country marked its independence from Spain, declared in 1821.
President Juan Orlando Hernández presided over an official parade at the national stadium in the capital, Tegucigalpa, while ex-President Manuel Zelaya led the opposition's march in another part of the city.
The protesters demand the resignation of the president, who has been accused by prosecutors in the U.S. of accepting money from drug cartels in his 2013 campaign. He denies the allegation.