From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm David DeForest reporting.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump says he will withdraw from the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement on the very first day he takes office.

In a video message posted to YouTube on Monday, Trump called the TPP a "potential disaster" for the United States.

He continued to meet Tuesday in New York with more candidates that might fill some key jobs in his new administration.

Trump also had lunch with editors and reporters from The New York Times, whose articles he has often attacked as untrue or unfair. He repudiated the white supremacist or ultra-right movement that has expressed support for him.

On another topic, Trump says he has no intention of pursuing investigations of Democrat Hillary Clinton's improper use of a private email server while secretary of state.

An Iranian official says more than 1,000 of his country's soldiers have been killed in Syria since Iran decided to back the government of Bashar al-Assad in the civil war. Iran has been fighting in Syria since early in the conflict.

The Pentagon, meanwhile, says a U.S. drone strike in northwestern Syria last week killed senior al-Qaeda leader Abu Afghan Al-Masri. Masri had ties to terrorist groups operating across much of southwest Asia.

Former Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi has had his life sentence overturned by Egypt's top appeals court. The court Tuesday threw out the second of two life sentences handed to him following [the espionage] his espionage conviction in a case involving the Palestinian group Hamas.

A death sentence against Morsi was overturned by the same court last week.

The former president and his associates will be retried in the two cases that were overturned.

This is VOA news.

The Indian army says three of its soldiers were killed Tuesday on the divide between Indian and Pakistani Kashmir.

The army called the attack "cowardly" and threatened "retribution." Multiple army sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the attackers crossed the border from the Pakistani side.

No immediate comment from Pakistan.

Afghanistan's new electoral commissioners were sworn in Tuesday, paving the way for long-delayed parliamentary and district council elections.

President Ashraf Ghani and his governing partner in the National Unity Government, Executive Abdullah Abdullah, witnessed the swearing-in ceremony at the presidential palace.

In Turkey, the government has withdrawn a proposed law that would have given amnesty to those convicted of having sex with a girl under the age of 18 if they marry the victim. Dorian Jones reports.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim announced the withdrawal just hours before parliament was set to vote the legislation into law.

In the face of widespread condemnation, Yildirim said the legislation would now be reconsidered. He said "these issues will be discussed by a parliamentary commission." He said if a proposal comes from the opposition, it will be developed.

All the Turkish opposition parties opposed the measure, although with the ruling AKP Party having a large majority in parliament, it would easily have passed.

Dorian Jones, Istanbul.

The Turkish government fired about 15,000 employees from the military, police and the civil service Tuesday as part of an investigation into the recent coup attempt.

The government closed more than 500 institutions, including nine news outlets and 19 health establishments.

A United Nations report released Tuesday says more than half of the global population remains unconnected to the Internet.

This year, 84 percent of the world's population had access to mobile broadband networks, but only 47 percent were actually connected, mostly because of high costs.

The report noted, however, that the cost of mobile cellular plans has decreased steeply since 2015, noting a 20 percent fall in prices across countries it deemed "least developed."

A Yemeni man living in New York City was charged Monday with trying to provide support to the Islamic State group.

A criminal complaint unsealed in federal court details allegations against 37-year-old Mohammed Rafik Naji, including expressing support for an attack in New York's Time Square.

Ignoring international appeals, Bangladesh is holding to its decision to bar Rohingya Muslim refugees fleeing Myanmar by boat from entering the country. Violence has broken out in Myanmar against the Rohingya.

From the VOA news center in Washington, I'm David DeForest.

That's the latest world news from VOA.