A summary of the most market affecting world news reported over the weekend.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah Monday to try to ease mounting tensions with the longtime U.S. ally in the Middle East.
During a news conference with Prince Saud al-Faisal, Kerry's Saudi counterpart, Kerry tried to tamp down reports of a rift between the two countries concerning differences over Syria, Iran and Egypt, The New York Times reported.
Kerry said President Obama asked him to reassure Saudi Arabian leaders the United States was committed to defending its ally against external threats and portrayed disagreements as more tactical in nature.
Faisal took a similar approach, saying in a statement: "A true relationship between friends is based on sincerity, candor and frankness, rather than mere courtesy. With this perspective, it's only natural that our policies and views might see agreement in some areas and disagreement in others."
The prince acknowledged the two sides differed on objectives, which he did not identify, although he said the differences chiefly concerned how to pursue those objectives.
On Syria, Faisal said both the United States and Saudi Arabia agree on the need for a peace conference and that Syrian President Bashar Assad should not have a role if a deal on a new transitional government is struck. However, Saudi Arabia is unhappy the United States decided against a military strike against Syria over the use of chemical weapons Aug. 21 in a Damascus suburb in which hundreds were killed.
Saudi Arabia also is concerned the United States may try to work with regional rival Iran on its nuclear program.
Earlier Monday, Kerry worked to set a positive tone for his meeting when he described Saudi Arabia as "the senior player in the Arab world."
Kerry began his nine-day trip to the Middle East and North Africa in Cairo, his first trip there as secretary of state since Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi was ousted in July.
In a news conference with Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy Sunday in Cairo, Kerry reiterated the U.S. commitment to Egypt and its pledge to work with the interim government.
"What happens here is profoundly important to the region and it is in the interest of the United States," Kerry said. "It is no secret that this has been a difficult time and these have been a turbulent couple of years. But the Egyptian people have shown the world how strong they are. They have really demonstrated a significant resolve as they work to see their transition to meet their aspirations as they've tried to make that work. We know full well ... that the path forward is ultimately in the hands of the Egyptian people, and we are confident that they will overcome the challenges that are facing them."
MOSCOW, Russia, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- Thousands of Russians protesting a rise in immigrants marched in Moscow Monday, carrying banners bearing nationalist and anti-immigrant slogans, officials said.
"Russians" and "Today a mosque, tomorrow jihad," read some of the banners, RIA Novosti reported.
Police said the march, held every year on the country's National Unity Day holiday, drew about 8,000 people, but organizers placed the number at more than 20,000.
Some 30 people were arrested for "wearing masks, minor public order offenses, shouting Nazi slogans and using banned symbols," police said.
Similar marches were held across the country.
TIKRIT, Iraq, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- An attack on the convoy of a police station commander was one of two bombings that injured 21 people Monday in northern Iraq, a police official said.
One attack occurred when a car bomb detonated while the convoy of Lt. Col. Dawood al-Sahan was leaving the police station in Shirqat, north of the Salahudin provincial capital of Tikrit, China's state-run news agency Xinhua reported.
Police said two suicide bombers blew themselves up, injuring 11 civilians and three police officers. Sahan was unharmed.
A car bomb also exploded at a police checkpoint outside the police academy in Tikrit, wounding four civilians and three policemen, the police official said.
The official said the bombing occurred near a recruitment center where dozens of recruits were gathering.
ADEN, Yemen, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- Al-Qaida militants bombed an oil pipeline in southwest Yemen Monday, a government official said.
The attack caused an oil leak in the pipeline, which transports 10,000 barrels of oil a day to Yemen's Belhaf export terminal in the Gulf of Aden, the government official told China's state-run news agency Xinhua.
"Armed terrorists of the al-Qaida group placed a roadside bomb under the pipeline in al-Saed region in Shabwa's eastern outskirts. The huge explosion caused a leak in the pipeline," the government source said.
Militant groups have repeatedly tried to attacked Yemen's oil pipelines in recent years. In response, the country has beefed up security measures along its pipelines to protect them from such attacks.
JERUSALEM, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- Officials from U.S. President Obama's administration will offer a draft of an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal in January, a Knesset member told Haaretz Monday.
Meretz Party Chairwoman Zahava Gal-On said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu about the U.S. intent during their meeting in Rome two weeks ago. Kerry is set to arrive in Israel Tuesday to meet Wednesday with Netanyahu and with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Gal-On told Haaretz she based her information on conversations she had in recent days with senior Palestinian, Arab and U.S. officials.
"The Obama administration plans to achieve a diplomatic breakthrough at the beginning of 2014," said Gal-On. "The Americans want to move from coordinating between the two sides to a phase of active intervention. This coming January, they will present a new diplomatic plan that will include all the core issues and will be based on the 1967 lines, with agreed-on land swaps. The plan will include a gradual timetable for implementation and will also address the dimension of regional peace based on the Arab Peace Initiative. It will also include an economic plan to invest billions in the Palestinian economy."
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have conducted 15 meetings since talks resumed in July. They are nearing the end of the first phase of talks, which included presenting opening positions on core issues. Haaretz said there have been no breakthroughs yet and Israel won't to present a defined position on the borders the future Palestinian state.
TEHRAN, Iran, Nov. 4 (UPI) -- Iranian demonstrators marking the 34th anniversary of the U.S. Embassy takeover in Tehran, ended rallies Monday with an anti-U.S. statement
Huge crowds of Iranians, mostly school and university students, demonstrated in more than 770 cities as part of the "National Day against Global Arrogance," Tasnim news agency reported.
In Tehran, demonstrators in front of the former U.S. diplomatic compound said in their statement they considered the United States the "Great Satan and the nation's No. 1 enemy."
On Nov. 4, 1979, less than a year after the Islamic Revolution toppled a U.S.-backed monarchy, Iranian university students seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. The Islamist students held 52 embassy staff members hostage for 444 days, severing diplomatic relations and provoking decades of mutual hostility.
Observers told Voice of America Monday's rally was the biggest in years at the annual event on the former U.S. compound. Hardline conservatives called for a major showing to protest President Hassan Rouhani's historic outreach to Washington.
A 15-minute telephone conversation after the U.N. General Assembly between U.S. President Obama and Rouhani in September was the first direct contact between the two countries' top leadership in more than three decades.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has voiced support for President Rouhani's overtures to the West, but says some of the president's moves were "not appropriate."
DAMMAJ, Western Sahara, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- A truce was reached in northern Yemen where fierce fighting between groups of Shiites and Sunnis left about 100 people dead, a military official said Saturday.
The cease-fire between the Houthi and Salafi militants came after three days of battle, the Yemen Post reported.
Yehia Mansour of the presidential committee that negotiated the truce told reporters the government had deployed two army battalions to make sure the cease-fire was adhered to by both sides.
Serour al-Wadie, a spokesman for the Salafis, confirmed more than 100 of its fighters had died since Wednesday.
Thousands of Salafists demonstrated in Sana'a Saturday in support of their group's fighters, the Post said.
The latest violence came on the heels of fighting last month that resulted in 42 people being killed in Amran and Ibb provinces, the newspaper said.