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

Two former U.S. intelligence officials strongly criticized President Trump on Sunday for saying he believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin "feels that he and Russia did not meddle" in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Former CIA director John Brennan in an appearance on CNN with James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, said Trump's initial indication that he believed Putin shows "that Trump can be played by foreign leaders who are going to appeal to his ego and try to play upon his insecurities, which is very, very worrisome from a national security standpoint."

Clapper said Russia poses an obvious threat to the U.S. and to suggest otherwise "poses a peril to this country."

On Saturday, Trump was asked whether the issue of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election came up in conversations with Putin in Vietnam where the two leaders attended an Asia-Pacific summit. Trump replied, "He said he didn't meddle, he said he didn't meddle. I asked him again. You can only ask so many times."

Trump then said, "That whole thing was set up by the Democrats." He criticized former American intelligence leaders, including Brennan and Clapper, [called] calling them political hacks.

On Sunday, President Trump clarified that he meant Putin was sincere when denying that Russia did not meddle in the election.

He said, "As to whether I believe it, I'm with our agencies. As currently led by fine people, I believe very much in our intelligence agencies."

This is VOA news.

Iraqi security forces have found mass graves in an area recently retaken from the Islamic State group. The Iraqi official said Sunday that the graves could contain up to 400 bodies.

Kirkuk's governor said the bodies of civilians and security forces were found in an abandoned base near Hawija, a northern town retaken in early October. He didn't say when authorities will start exhuming the bodies from the mass graves.

A local shepherd (who) led troops to the site said ISIS used to bring captives to the area and shoot them dead or pour oil over them and light them on fire. The area was strewn with torn clothing and what appeared to be human bones and skulls.

A powerful earthquake followed by a strong aftershock rocked the Iran-Iraqi border Sunday, damaging a number of villages.

The 7.3 magnitude quake killed at least 13, according to official news agencies in both countries.

The quake struck Sunday night outside the eastern Iraqi Kurdistan city of Halabja, very close to the Iranian border.

It was felt as far away as Turkey.

A train crash in Congo on Sunday killed at least 34 people and injured at least 26 others in Lualaba province in the country's southeast.

The injury and death toll is likely to rise because some train cars are on fire and some were carrying fuel. Eleven of the 13 cars caught fire.

The cause of the accident is not yet known.

Slovenia's President Borut Pahor was re-elected to a second term Sunday after winning a runoff election against a former comedian who currently serves as the mayor of a northern town.

Pahor got 53 percent of the vote.

Turkey is denying a report that it may have discussed a plot to seize a Muslim cleric living in the United States with a former Trump administration official.

According to a Wall Street Journal story published Friday, Special Counsel Robert Mueller is investigating an alleged plan involving President Trump's former National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, to kidnap Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric who has lived in the U.S. since 1999. According to the report, Flynn and his son were to receive as much as $15 million for delivering Gulen to the Turks.

There is 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.