BERLIN, Nov 18 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Olaf Scholz criticised Israel's settlement policy in the occupied West Bank on Saturday and repeated calls for a two state solution for Israel and Palestinians.

"We don't want any new settlements in the West Bank, no violence by settlers against the Palestinians in the West Bank," Scholz said during a visit to Nuthetal in Brandenburg state.

The best outcome for Israelis and Palestinians remains the two-state solution, he said.

BEIRUT, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Hezbollah and Israel traded rocket and missile fire in areas near the Lebanese-Israeli border on Saturday, officials on both sides said, in the latest flare-up of violence which the United States worries will cause conflict to spiral in the Middle East.

The Iran-backed Hezbollah said it shot down an Israeli drone near the border in the early hours of Saturday. Israel’s military said it intercepted a missile fired at an Israeli drone. Reuters could not verify either statement.

MOSCOW, November 18. /TASS/: The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) may apply sanctions against foreign athletes who will participate in the 2024 World Friendship Games, WADA President Witold Banka said.

"The so-called World Friendship Games in Russia have been announced for next year. We would like to sound a note of warning due to them, we have serious doubts from the viewpoint of anti-doping prospects. This possible event will be organized in a country that lacks compliance, and we have no information about the anti-doping program during those competitions," he said.

QUITO, Nov 18 (NNN-XINHUA) — Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso delivered 15 Turkish-built Otokar armored tactical vehicles to the armed forces to help fight organized crime and violence.

The armored vehicles, each of which can accommodate nine soldiers, “have greater ballistic and mine protection. They also have technical characteristics for entering places that are difficult to access and highly dangerous in urban and rural settings,” Lasso said during the handover at Mariscal Sucre Air Base here.

BERLIN (AP) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday aired deep differences over the war between Israel and Hamas as the Turkish leader made a brief and tensely anticipated visit to Berlin.

Erdogan was invited to visit Germany months ago after his reelection, but recent weeks have been marked by discomfort in Berlin over his increasingly strident stance against Israel.

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 17 (Reuters) - International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said on Friday this week's meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping is a badly needed signal that the world needs to cooperate more.

"It sends a signal to the rest of the world that we must find ways to cooperate on those challenges where no country on its own can succeed," Georgieva told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The 92-year-old businessman who represented Taiwan at this week’s summit of Asia-Pacific leaders in San Francisco expressed hope Friday that the meeting between U.S. President Joe Biden and China’s Xi Jinping should help to reduce tensions between the two superpowers and in the region.

Morris Chang, the founder of the microchip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, also suggested the meeting could help to promote economic stability and reliable supply chains.

SYDNEY, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Australia's government said on Saturday it had expressed serious concerns to China after an "unsafe and unprofessional" interaction between an Australian navy vessel and Chinese warship left Australian military divers injured.

Defence Minister Richard Marles said the HMAS Toowoomba - a long-range frigate - was conducting a diving operation in Japan's Exclusive Economic Zone on Nov. 14 to clear fishing nets from its propellers when the incident occurred.

MOSCOW, November 18. /TASS/: Russia’s former Finance Minister and First Deputy Governor of the Bank of Russia Sergey Aleksashenko (recognized as a foreign agent) has been put on the wanted list on a criminal charge, according to the Russian Interior Ministry’s criminal investigation base.

"Sergey V. Aleksashenko is on the wanted list on the Criminal Code’s article," according to the base.

16 November 2023; MEMO: “Grave violations” committed by Israel against Palestinians since Oct. 7 “point to a genocide in the making,” a group of independent UN experts said on Thursday.

17 November 2023; MEMO: The Ministry of Health in Gaza has stated that the Israeli army destroyed medical departments in its attack on Al-Shifa Hospital.

Sources inside the Al-Shifa complex also reported that Israeli bulldozers began destroying the southern part of the complex and are advancing to demolish other departments.

17 November 2023; MEMO: Israel has rejected a request for a visit from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Turk, amid growing concern over the escalation of violence in its war on Gaza.

According to Euro News, the Israeli mission to the United Nations in Geneva told the French news agency AFP in response to a question about Turk’s request to visit Israel, “Israel is not aware of any additional benefit to a visit from the High Commissioner at this time.”