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

Israeli police say a truck driven by a Palestinian slammed into a group of Israeli soldiers Sunday, killing four of them and injuring another 15.

Authorities said the soldiers were getting off a bus at the promenade overlooking the walled Old City of Jerusalem when the truck veered off course and smashed into the group.

"I hear my soldiers shouting and screaming and I don't understand and I'm looking behind my soldiers and just seeing a truck that went on the sidewalk."

Authorities shot and killed the attacker. Palestinian authorities identified him as a resident of East Jerusalem.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told French media in an interview to be aired Monday that his forces are on the road to victory. He called the retaking of Aleppo the tipping point to winning the civil war.

Mr. Assad told visiting French officials Sunday that he is optimistic about upcoming peace talks in Kazakhstan, saying he is ready for reconciliation with rebel groups seeking to overthrow him.

Meanwhile, there were airstrikes Sunday in a rebel-held area near Damascus which contained a water supply for the city.

Several rebel groups say the attacks represent a collapse of the fragile cease-fire negotiated by Russia and Turkey.

Iraqi officials say at least 20 people were killed in two suicide bomb attacks in the capital, Baghdad.

(In) one attack, a bomber set off his explosives at the entrance to a market. Thirteen people were killed there. In another blast in Baghdad, seven people were killed.

Iranian state television has announced the death of former President and leading reformer Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

This is VOA news.

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said on the BBC Andrew Marr show Sunday that she is serious about the possibility of a second Scottish independence referendum.

"If we're going to be ignored, if our voice has been completely cast aside, our interests cast aside, then that can happen on anything. And we have to ask ourselves in Scotland are we happy to have the direction of our country, the kind of country we want to be determined by a right-wing Conservative government."

Ms. Sturgeon has hinted that a full withdrawal from the EU and its common market could lead to another vote for independence.

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Theresa May says she will announce details of her nation's exit from the European Union in the next few weeks. She denied accusations that her government is muddled about Brexit.

She told a Sky news interviewer that Britain will leave the bloc's single market and not try to keep bits of membership. Ms. May also said she has had good conversations with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump even though she labeled as unacceptable some of Trump's comments about women.

Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo has been sworn into office. Ghanaians are looking for an end to the nation's current economic hardships as we hear from Francisca Kakra Forson.

An arduous task lays ahead for the new president who inherits a weak economy with an increasing debt, high inflation, plummeting commodities prices and the cedi's free fall.

President Akufo-Addo in his inaugural speech promised prosperity for all Ghanaians.

"We must create wealth and restore happiness to our nation."

Some young Ghanaians are highly expectant of the prospects of an Akufo-Addo government.

Francisca Kakra Forson, Accra.

Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari says his government is still trying to find the remaining Chibok girls that are held captive by the militant group Boko Haram.

Marking day 1,000 of the girls' abduction, President Buhari wrote on Twitter Sunday that hopes all of the girls will soon be back home.

The suspect who is alleged to have shot and wounded an official with the U.S. consulate in Guadalajara, Mexico, on Friday has been arrested. He has not yet been identified.

The wounded American official, identified as 13-year foreign service officer Christopher Ashcraft, is said to be in stable condition.

U.S. President Barack Obama says he "underestimated" the impact of the Russian campaign of misinformation and computer hacking.

The [report] remark, rather, follows a conclusion by U.S. intelligence officials that Russia meddled in the recent U.S. presidential election.

Mr. Obama told ABC News This Week that he doesn't think that he underestimated Russian President Vladimir Putin, alleged by U.S. intelligence to have ordered the effort to undermine American elections.

In Washington, I'm David DeForest.

That's the latest world news from VOA.