MOSCOW, Aug 25 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said that Western suggestions Russian mercenary boss Yevgeny Prigozhin had been killed on its orders were an "absolute lie" while declining to definitively confirm his death, citing the need to wait for test results.

Russia's aviation authority has said that Prigozhin, head of the Wagner mercenary group, was on board a private jet which crashed on Wednesday evening northwest of Moscow with no survivors.

HARARE, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Early parliamentary results in Zimbabwe showed the ruling party and the main opposition neck and neck on Friday, after an election in which President Emmerson Mnangagwa's ZANU-PF party was widely expected to maintain its 43-year grip on power.

Presidential results have yet to be announced after Wednesday's vote, which was extended into Thursday in some neighbourhoods due to late printing of ballot papers.

BEIJING, Aug 25 (APP): The 20th China-ASEAN Expo (CAEXPO), an annual trade show that aims to facilitate economic cooperation between China and ASEAN, will be held from September 16 to 19 in Nanning, South China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, with the exhibition’s scale bouncing back to pre-virus levels, Chinese officials said.

TOKYO, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- Japan started releasing nuclear-contaminated wastewater from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant into the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, disregarding public concerns and strong opposition from both home and abroad.

The Japanese government and certain organizations claim that the released water is safe, but environmental activists argue that all the possible impacts have not been studied and the wastewater disposal will take decades to complete.

FLIP-FLOPPING

MOSCOW, August 25. /TASS/: Russia warns Moldova not to get too involved in the process of "supporting" Kiev as such actions endanger security in the region, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a commentary.

"I would like to <...> warn official Chisinau against getting too involved in the process of 'supporting' Ukraine, as this will not only jeopardize stability and security in the region, but will actually make Moldova an accomplice to the Kiev regime's war crimes," the diplomat said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Democrats are accusing big tax preparation firms including Intuit and H&R Block of undermining the federal government’s upcoming electronic free file tax return system and are demanding lobbying, hiring and revenue data to determine what’s going on.

The lawmakers accuse the companies of lobbying against the new program, hiring former government workers to sway public interest against free file for all, and deliberately sabotaging a government program that offered free tax prep services, according to letters obtained by The Associated Press.

KAMPALA, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has banned the importation of used clothing into the east African country, saying it stifles the development of local textile industries and that the clothes belonged to dead Westerners.

Like most African countries, Uganda has traditionally imported large quantities of used clothing, which some consumers prefer because it is low-cost.

But local manufacturers complain the dumping of second-hand apparel swamps the market, undermining Uganda's ability to climb the value chain of the cotton and textile industry.

ROME, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Italy's northern city of Milan registered a new record high average daily temperature of 33 Celsius (91.4 Fahrenheit) on Wednesday as a heatwave which began around mid-August reached its peak, the regional environmental protection agency (ARPA) said on Friday.

It was the hottest day since the Milano Brera weather station started recording temperatures in 1763. Milan's previous record of 32.8 C was set on Aug. 11, 2003.

RIYADH, Aug 25 (APP):The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) on Friday categorically rejected the Human Rights Watch’s recent report claiming an assault on the Ethiopian citizens while attempting to cross the Saudi-Yemeni border.

“These allegations lack merit and are based on unreliable sources,” Saudi official sources said.

The publication and dissemination of politicized and misleading report was part of ‘malicious media campaigns’, which were repeatedly launched with questionable motives, they added.

TEHRAN, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Friday that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and BRICS have been formed to promote cooperation among countries to help them progress while respecting their independence.

Raisi made the remarks upon arrival in Tehran from Johannesburg, South Africa, where he took part in the 15th BRICS Summit, according to a statement released by the president's office.

He elaborated on the capacities of the two blocs, saying that they are newly emerging groups that are "completely against unilateralism."

MOSCOW, August 25. /TASS/: TASS Director-General Andrey Kondrashov on Friday handed over to Maxim Kharlamov, the chief of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, a certificate of the agency's special correspondent on the International Space Station (ISS) for cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, who will become a fourth TASS correspondent on the orbital outpost.

The certificate was handed over at the TASS headquarters in Moscow. Earlier, Oleg Kononenko was handed the agency's space mascot - a soft toy Inotasia, which will go with him into space.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Authorities battling a major wildfire in northeastern Greece that has been described as the European Union’s largest single recorded fire recovered another body, the fire department said Friday, bringing the total death toll from wildfires in Greece this week to 21.

The fire department said firefighters recovered the body of a man from the Dadia-Lefkimi-Soufli Forest National Park, which lies near the border with Turkey, on Thursday.