PYONGYANG -- A senior official of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) said on Wednesday that his government would not sit together with the authorities of South Korea and "there will be neither exchange nor cooperation in the future."

"We have no idea to sit together with the authorities of the south side who evoke only disgust and nasty feelings," Jang Kum Chol, director of the United Front Department of the Central Committee of the Workers' Party of Korea, said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). (DPRK-South Korea)

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TEGUCIGALPA -- Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez announced Tuesday in a message to the nation that he and his wife Ana Garcia both tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

"Today I was diagnosed as having been infected with COVID-19," said Hernandez in a televised speech. (Honduras-President-COVID-19)

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KABUL -- The Afghan National Police (ANP) arrested four Islamic State (IS) members including one of the group's key leaders in eastern Kunar province, the Ministry of Interior said Wednesday.

The ANP's Special Operations Police Force conducted a counter-terrorism operation Tuesday night, arresting IS members in Jaba Pushad village of Sarkanu district, the ministry said in a statement. (Afghanistan-IS-Arrest)

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BEIRUT -- Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Alexander Zasypkin said Wednesday that the United States' new sanctions against Syria will not fall in the interest of Lebanon, local media reported.

"Lebanon does not have an interest in new sanctions," Zasypkin was quoted as saying by Elnashra, local independent newspaper. (Lebanon-Russia-U.S.-Caesar Act)