From Washington, this is VOA news. I'm Jonathan Jones reporting.

At least 23 people, some of them civilians, were killed by a car bomb in the rebel- held Syrian city of Idlib on Sunday.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

Earlier Sunday, Syrian regime forces seized a key town in the province, according to the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Government forces backed by Russian air power captured Sinjar, the biggest town in the southeast part of Idlib province.

President Trump says he hopes the newly arranged talks between North and South Korea will "go beyond the Olympics" and promised the United States will take part "at the appropriate time."

On Sunday, the White House released a statement saying the president spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday and discussed the latest "developments on the Korean Peninsula.

Assessing the upcoming discussions between the two Koreas on Tuesday, Trump said "if something can happen and something can come out of those talks that would be a great thing for all of humanity. That would be a great thing for the world."

The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, says it is "good for the United States" that North and South Korea are going to meet and talk, but she warned that the North's nuclear weapons ambitions still pose a serious threat to the world.

She said on ABC News on Sunday, "This is a very dangerous situation." The United States is "not letting up on the pressure" to end North Korea's nuclear weapons development. She warned, "We can destroy them." She said if North Korean leader Kim Jong Un were to launch a nuclear attack on the United States, "It is not going to be the U.S. that is destroyed."

This is VOA news.

Australia is to become the fourth country in the world to allow exports of cannabis-based therapies. The federal government hopes the reforms will help Australia become a world leader in the medicinal cannabis market.

From Sydney, correspondent Phil Mercer reports.

Potential export markets include South America, Spain, Canada and Germany.

Australian Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt says allowing exports will help the developing domestic market to expand.

"We have a world class reputation for our clean and green farm products. Put them all together and we are brilliantly placed to be a world leader in medical development and medical cannabis."

Officials say medicinal cannabis exports have the potential to create a lucrative new agricultural industry within Australia, similar to that already established for the use of Australian-grown poppies for medicinal and scientific purposes.

Correspondent Phil Mercer.

Israel is barring members of 20 global activist groups over their calls for a boycott of the Jewish state because of its Palestinian policies.

The 20 groups come from Chile, Europe, South Africa and the United States. They include the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Quaker activist group, American Friends Service Committee.

The Israeli Public Security Minister, Gilad Erdan, said on Sunday, "We have moved from defense to attack. The boycott organizations need to know that the state of Israel will act against them and will not allow them to enter its territory to harm its citizens."

An American Friends Service Committee official said the group "answered the call for divestment from apartheid in South Africa and we have done the same with the call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions from Palestinians who have faced decades of human rights violations."

And President Trump is set to soon decide whether to continue waiving sanctions on Iran, sanctions that were suspended under the 2015 international deal on Iran's nuclear program.

The waiver must be renewed every 120 days, according to U.S. law.

Trump could decide not to renew, putting U.S. trade sanctions back into effect.

The Europe's supporters of the anti-government protesters in Iran have been gathering to show their support in The Hague, Berlin, Hamburg, Stockholm, London and Paris.

You can find more on these and other late breaking and developing stories, from around the world, around the clock, at voanews.com and on the VOA news mobile app. I'm Jonathan Jones reporting from the world headquarters of the Voice of America in Washington.

That's the latest world news from VOA.