Bahrain foreign minister rules out speculation that the meeting would announce the partial Gulf Union.

GCC Foreign Ministers discussed in Manama on Monday the GCC union and establishment of an authority for economy and development, a senior Kuwaiti diplomat said.

Jayalalithaa Jayaram, the chief minister of south India’s Tamil Nadu state and one of the country’s most popular political leaders, died after a prolonged illness, hospital authorities announced late yesterday night. “It is with indescribable grief, we announce the sad demise of our esteemed honorable chief minister of Tamil Nadu … at 11:30pm (local time) today (December 5),” Chennai’s Apollo Hospital said in a statement released to the media.

The Kingdom of Bahrain has decorated streets across the country with national flags of the six countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in preparation for the 37th GCC summit slated for Tuesday.

A plane carrying 81 people, including a top Brazilian football team, has crashed on its approach to the city of Medellin in Colombia, officials say.

Cuba's former president Fidel Castro, one of the world's longest-serving and most iconic leaders, has died aged 90.