USA

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 29 (NNN-XINHUA) – Vietnamese Foreign Minister, Pham Binh Minh, called for strengthening the United Nations by revitalising the acutely challenged multi-lateralism.

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 29 (NNN-XINHUA) – Malaysian Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, said, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, should follow China’s example, to boost the regional economy while voicing strong support for free trade.

“ASEAN has got 650 million people, half the population of China. Yet, we don’t have even half the strength of China,” said the 94-year-old politician, adding, “we must learn how to exploit that population.”

UNITED NATIONS, Sept 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Sudan’s prime minister said on Friday he had held useful talks with U.S. officials while at the United Nations this week, and expressed hope Khartoum could reach an agreement to be removed from Washington’s state-sponsored terrorism list “very soon.”

Abdalla Hamdok, an economist, was appointed in August as leader of a transition government, vowing to stabilise the country and repair an economy battered by years of U.S. sanctions and government mismanagement during Omar al-Bashir’s 30-year rule.

BOCA CHICA VILLAGE, Texas (AP) — Elon Musk has unveiled a SpaceX spacecraft designed to carry a crew and cargo to the moon, Mars or anywhere else in the solar system and land back on Earth perpendicularly.

In a livestreamed speech from SpaceX’s launch facility near the southern tip of Texas, Musk said Saturday that the space venture’s Starship is expected to take off for the first time in about one or two months and reach 65,000 feet (19,800 meters) before landing back on Earth.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The head of the U.N.’s nuclear test ban treaty organization says that in his “wild dreams,” very young children around the world will be taught that nuclear testing isn’t good — and that the world should be free of nuclear weapons.

In an interview on the sidelines of the annual gathering of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly, Lassina Zerbo said he started a nine-member youth group three years ago with that aim. It has grown to 780 today, and they come from all over.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif is denying his country would interfere with the upcoming U.S. presidential election and says his government doesn’t have a preference in the race.

In an interview to air Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Zarif also accuses the U.S. of initiating a cyberwar with his country and warns that “any war the United States starts it won’t be able to finish.”

The interview took place in New York, which Zarif visited this past week to attend meetings at the United Nations. NBC provided a partial transcript on Saturday.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — By the time drug enforcement agents swooped into his small medical office in Martinsville, Virginia, in 2017, Dr. Joel Smithers had prescribed about a half a million doses of highly addictive opioids in two years.

Patients from five states drove hundreds of miles to see him, spending up to 16 hours on the road to get prescriptions for oxycodone and other powerful painkillers.

PHOENIX (AP) — A 20-year-old student at Arizona State University broke the news that a key State Department official who was involved in talks between President Donald Trump and the Ukrainian government had stepped down from his post.

Andrew Howard, a managing editor of The State Press student newspaper, reported Friday evening that Kurt D. Volker stepped down from his role as the State Department’s special envoy for Ukraine.

“I’m not sure any of us thought it would just be this big scoop,” Howard told The Associated Press. “It’s just incredible.”

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The Middle East. Trade tensions. Iran’s nuclear program. Venezuela’s power struggle. Civil wars in Syria and Yemen. Familiar flash points such as these got plenty of airtime at the U.N. General Assembly’s big annual gathering this week.

But some leaders used their time on the world stage to highlight international conflicts and disputes that don’t usually command the same global attention.

A look at some of the less-discussed controversies trying to be heard:

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NAGORNO-KARABAKH

DALLAS (AP) — The jury deciding the fate of a former Dallas police officer who shot and killed her unarmed black neighbor heard around five minutes of testimony on day six of the trial before being sent home.

Amber Guyger, 31, who is white, is on trial for murder after she fatally shot 26-year-old Botham Jean, an accountant who was alone in his apartment when she came through his front door thinking it was her own.