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

Secretary of State John Kerry held talks in London Sunday with British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson. Afterward, Kerry told reporters all options remain open for the U.S. and its allies in Syria but admitted the United States and Europe have no "appetite" for the military option.

Kerry said pitting the U.S. against Russia would just light a fire under the civil war.

A frustrated Kerry warned of new sanctions against Russia and Syria.

"We are considering additional sanctions and we are also, let make me it clear, President Obama has not taken any options off the table at this point in time. So we'll see where we are in the next few days in the context of the discussions we're having."

Kerry said crimes against humanity are taking place in Aleppo daily.

The Iraqi Air Force has dropped thousands of leaflets on Mosul, warning residents there of the coming offensive to take the city from the Islamic State group.

The leaflet drop late Saturday came after hours of an artillery bombardment by Iraqi and Kurdish forces.

The United States, Britain and the United Nations peace envoy to Yemen called Sunday for the warring parties in that country to declare a cease-fire.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said after meeting in London with Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed that now is the time to implement a cease-fire.

South Korea has strongly condemned North Korea's latest missile launch attempt. The South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement Sunday the launch was a provocation and violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions.

Earlier, the U.S. military reported that North Korea tried to launch an intermediate-range ballistic missile Saturday, but that the effort failed.

This is VOA news.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is dismissing the latest U.S. accusations that the Kremlin has directed cyberattacks in an attempt to interfere in upcoming U.S. elections.

Putin spoke Sunday in India at a televised news conference, calling the hacking allegations an effort to destruct Americans from lots of problems facing their country.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden told NBC news on Friday that U.S. retaliation for Russian cyberattacks (quoting now) "will be at the time of our choosing, and under circumstances that will have the greatest impact."

U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump conceded Sunday he is losing support among female voters.

Trump blames the loss on media reports about women who have accused him of making unwanted sexual advances on them. He insists that the reports are false and that they are part of a coordinated effort to rig the election.

A national average of polls compiled by RealClearPolitics shows Democrat Hillary Clinton with a 5.5-percentage point lead over Trump.

Trump and Clinton face off in their third and final debate on Wednesday.

Clinton is staying off the campaign trail for a few days as she prepares for the face-off. She is likely to face questions about thousands of hacked and possibly embarrassing emails from the account of her campaign chief, John Podesta, that WikiLeaks has disclosed in recent days.

The United Nations says about 370,000 registered and undocumented Afghan refugees have returned home from neighboring Pakistan this year. That spike in returns has been seen since mid-July.

Amid fears of threats posed by protectionism, the so-called BRICS countries have vowed to deepen economic engagement, tackle the global economic slowdown and combat cross-border terrorism.

The leaders of the five emerging economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa wrapped up a summit Sunday in India.

The state-run news agency in Kuwait says [emir] its Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah has issued a decree dissolving the national assembly.

The reason cited was a "lack of cooperation.'

The decree brings down the government and sets the stage for early elections.

A senior official in Mexico says jailed drug trafficker Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán could be extradited to the United States by no later than February.

American authorities want Guzmán on drug trafficking and other charges.

For more on these and other news stories, take a look at our website. It's voanews.com. I'm David DeForest in Washington.

That's the latest world news from VOA.