Syrian Kurdish forces have set their sights on taking back from jihadists Tal Abyad, another strategic town on the border with Turkey, after recapturing Kobane, a monitor said Monday.

Tal Abyad, located about 65 kilometers (40 miles) east of Kobane, is an Arab and Kurd town in the Syrian province of Raqa used by jihadists of the Islamic State group to cross into Turkey.

A military judge halted a hearing at Guantanamo after defendants accused of the September 11, 2001 attacks complained that the court interpreter had worked in the CIA's secret prisons.

Ramzi Binalshibh, one of the five accused, was the first to object to the interpreter's presence in the court room.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday he is determined to address Congress next month over Iran's nuclear program, brushing off U.S. fears his intervention could derail talks with Tehran.

"I am determined to address Congress, that is why I decided to go to Washington and present Israel's position," Netanyahu told participants at an election event by his Likud party.

Suspected members of Boko Haram kidnapped 20 people from a bus in northern Cameroon, then executed 12 of them, a security source and resident said Monday.

The kidnapping occurred on Sunday and all of the survivors have since been released, said a resident, on condition of anonymity, whose wife was among those abducted. An official from a local NGO also confirmed the incident.

Pakistani and Indian officials Monday failed to reach agreement on the resumption of trade across their de facto border in the disputed territory of Kashmir, Pakistani officials said.

Trade was suspended after Indian authorities Friday detained a Pakistani truck driver accused of drug trafficking.

U.S. President Barack Obama said Monday there was no reason to extend nuclear talks with Iran once again, stressing the question now is whether Tehran truly wants an agreement.

"I don't see a further extension being useful if they have not agreed to the basic formulation and the bottom line that the world requires to have confidence that they're not pursuing a nuclear weapon," Obama said at a joint press conference with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Kurdish forces backed up by U.S.-led air strikes have recaptured territory from Islamic State jihadists near the strategic city of Mosul in northern Iraq, the American military said Monday.

The advance is the latest push by Kurdish forces around Mosul, considered a crucial battleground for an eventual major counteroffensive against the IS group by Iraqi government troops and the Kurds.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Stockholm on Monday for an official visit tainted by a diplomatic row with Israel following Sweden's recognition of Palestine.

Swedish relations with Israel sank to an all-time low after the Nordic country's center-left government decided in October to recognize Palestine, just weeks after it took office.

U.S. President Barack Obama said Monday no decision had been made on whether to send weapons to Ukraine to help Kiev battle pro-Russian separatists, as he warned the West would not allow Russia to redraw Europe's borders by force.

Obama, who has faced increasing calls from domestic critics to supply the outmatched Ukrainian army with more weapons to shore up its faltering defenses, said he was still mulling his options.

Russia has accused a former employee of the Moscow Patriarchate of state treason, the latest person suspected of committing a grave crime against the state amid tensions with the West over Ukraine.

Yevgeny Petrin, who had worked for the Moscow Patriarchate in Ukraine, was detained on charges of treason last June, a spokeswoman for Moscow's Lefortovo district court told Agence France-Presse on Monday.