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Pirates boarded a container ship off the coast of Nigeria, seizing 11 crew including eight from Poland, Reuters reports. The attackers struck the MV Pomerenia Sky, bound for the Nigerian port of Onne, early on Saturday and abducted 11 of the crew, Midocean (IOM) said on Sunday. The firm added that nine others remained on board and were unharmed. Polish state media cited Foreign Minister Jacek Czaputowicz as saying that eight of the kidnapped crew members were from Poland. On Monday, a Swiss shipping company said that 12 crew members of a bulk carrier, who were abducted by pirates more than five weeks ago near Nigeria, have been released. Massoel Shipping said the seven Filipinos, a Slovenian, a Ukrainian, a Romanian, a Croatian and a Bosnian, who were abducted in September, were freed on Saturday in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and were in Switzerland before returning home, according to AP.

The Russia-NATO Council will discuss Washington’s plans to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty) at its upcoming meeting, Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Department for European cooperation Andrey Kelin said on Monday. “I think the meeting’s agenda will be incomplete without the US plans to pull out from the INF Treaty, which is the hottest topic at the moment,” Kelin said. A NATO official was earlier quoted by TASS as saying that the Council would hold an ambassadorial meeting in Brussels on October 31.

Venice city officials say 70 percent of the lagoon city has been flooded by waters rising 149 centimeters (more than 58 1/2 inches) above sea level. Venice frequently floods when high winds push in water from the lagoon, but Monday’s levels are exceptional and are forecast to rise even higher, 160 centimeters (nearly 63 inches) by mid-afternoon, AP reports. The current level is the highest reached since November 2012, according to Venice statistics. The last time levels topped 160 centimeters was in December 1979. Much of Italy is under alert for flooding from heavy rains, a problem exacerbated by a lack of maintenance on river beds. Veneto Regional Governor Luca Zaia says flooding could reach the levels of the 1966 flood that inundated both Venice and Florence.

A student was shot and injured at a North Carolina high school on Monday morning, and another student was taken into custody, according to police. The wounded student was taken to a hospital in unknown condition after the shooting unfolded at Butler High School in Matthews, North Carolina, about 12 miles outside of Charlotte, AP reported, citing the Matthews Police Department. Authorities describe the shooting as “an isolated incident,” saying the scene was secured by police. Classes resumed after a brief lockdown. Parents were told they could pick up their children from the campus.

The leaders of Japan and India agreed Monday to step up their cooperation in defense, trade and other areas amid China’s growing influence in the region, AP reports. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Indian counterpart, Narendra Modi, said in Tokyo they are expanding ammunition sales and high-level defense talks and joint military exercises. “Relations between Japan and India have the biggest potential in the world,” Abe said after the talks. Modi said that “without India-Japan cooperation, there will be no development in Asia into the next century.” Abe and Modi welcomed joint exercises by their ground, sea and air forces and the start of negotiations toward an acquisition and cross-servicing agreement, which would enable sharing of supplies and ammunition between the two militaries. The two leaders also signed a second-phase agreement for a Japanese super-express railway project in India. The meeting comes immediately after Abe’s visit to Beijing, where he met with Chinese leaders.

Strongman Khalifa Haftar, whose self-styled Libyan National Army dominates the country’s east, visited Rome on Monday for talks ahead of next month’s Sicily conference on the conflict-hit North African nation. Italy is reportedly trying to convince Haftar to support a crisis resolution plan drawn up by the UN’s envoy to Libya, Ghassan Salame, which will be presented to the Security Council a few days before the Sicily meeting. Haftar arrived in Rome on Sunday and met with Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte for a series of meetings ahead of the November 12-13 summit, which will be held in Palermo, AFP reported. The Italian prime minister had also held separate meetings on Friday with the head of Libya’s UN-backed government, Fayez al-Sarraj, and the UN’s Salame.