World News in Brief: September 18

Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos left for New York on Sunday to participate in the 77th session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, with his priority focus on food security, energy and climate change.
Typhoon Nanmadol bore down on Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu on Sunday with the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) warning of gales and high waves.
Typhoon Nanmadol bore down on Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu on Sunday with the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) warning of gales and high waves.

* Russian Security Council secretary Nikolai Patrushev will hold security consultations and meetings during a two-day visit to China starting Sunday, China's foreign ministry said.

* Li Zhanshu, chairman of China's National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee, paid an official goodwill visit to the Republic of Korea from Thursday to Saturday, at the invitation of the RoK's National Assembly Speaker Kim Jin-pyo.

* President Tayyip Erdogan said he was targeting membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) for NATO-member Turkey, broadcaster NTV and other media said on Saturday.

* Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan reported no major combat incidents on Saturday, indicating that a ceasefire they agreed after intense fighting on Friday remained in effect despite accusations of sporadic shelling by both sides.

* Queen Elizabeth's state funeral on Monday will be shown by around 125 cinemas across Britain, while parks, squares and cathedrals will also set up viewing screens for the huge ceremonial event, the government said on Saturday.

* Senegalese President Macky Sall appointed a new prime minister on Saturday, a position he abolished in 2019 and reinstated last year.

* President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey and Russia had reached a deal resolving a dispute over a nuclear power plant being built at Akkuyu in southern Turkey, reinstating a Turkish contractor, broadcaster NTV and other media said on Saturday.

* Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Ishtaye on Saturday accused Israel of defying all the signed peace agreements and disregarding international law.

* Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will meet during the U.N. General Assembly in New York, Lapid's office said on Saturday.

* Brunei will conduct a fifth generation (5G) mobile network trial for cellphone subscribers for up to eight weeks.

* A total of 165 ships with 3.7 million tonnes of agricultural products on board have left Ukraine under a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey to unblock Ukrainian sea ports, the Ukrainian infrastructure ministry said on Sunday.

* The annual Arab financial aid to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) had declined to 3 percent of UNRWA's budget in 2022, a UN advisor said on Saturday.

* UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and his special envoy for global education, Gordon Brown, on Saturday launched a multi-billion-dollar International Finance Facility for Education (IFFEd).

* Hungary has extended price caps on fuels and basic foodstuff by three months until the end of the year in a bid to shield households from soaring costs, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff told a briefing on Saturday.

* Bangladesh has embarked on a high growth path with an aim to double its export earnings in just four years, the country's Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi said in Dhaka on Saturday.

* Kuwait Petroleum Corporation's (KPC) chief executive said on Sunday the Gulf state currently produces more than 2.8 million barrels per day of oil in accordance with its OPEC quota.

* Saudi Arabia's central bank governor Fahad al-Mubarak said in a conference on Sunday that inflation in the kingdom is still within a reasonable rate.

* Tunisia said on Saturday it raised prices of gas cooking bottles by 14% and fuel by 3% as part of a plan to reduce energy subsides, a main policy change wanted by the country’s international lenders.

* Germany's Oktoberfest, the largest folk festival in Germany, started Saturday here in Munich, Bavaria, after a two-year COVID-induced break.

* Brazilian national health regulator Anvisa has approved the COVID-19 vaccine produced by Pfizer PFE.N and BioNTech for children aged between six months and four years, the government body said in a statement Friday night.

* The total death toll in Pakistan from this season's monsoon rains and floods since mid-June has risen to around 1,545, along with 12,860 injured, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said.

* Tropical storm Fiona gained strength on Saturday as it headed toward Puerto Rico, prompting the National Hurricane Center (NHC) to issue a hurricane warning and alerts for "life threatening floods and mudslides" for the US territory and watches for the US Virgin Islands.

* A bus crash killed 27 people and injured a further 20 when the vehicle rolled over on a highway in southwest China's mountainous Guizhou province, local police said in a statement on Sunday.

VNA, Reuters, Xinhua