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9 Oct 2018; AP: Republican Sen. Rand Paul says he’ll try to force a vote in the Senate this week blocking U.S. arms sales to Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Paul told local radio in Kentucky he wants to end the arms shipments if there’s “any indication” the Saudis are “implicated in killing this journalist that was critical of them.”

Khashoggi disappeared last week after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul for routine paperwork ahead of his marriage.

MILAN, October 9. /TASS/. Russia will remain the global oil industry leader over the long term, Energy Minister Alexander Novak told reporters on Tuesday.

"Russia is currently the leader of the global oil industry and will remain as such on a long-term horizon. Our strategy provides for maintaining oil production at the current level, even with a small increase," the minister said.

Nevertheless, Russia needs to undertake incentivizing measures currently discussed by the government to maintain oil production, Novak added.

TEHRAN, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said on Tuesday that the U.S. unilateralism is the root cause of growing insecurity in the world, Press TV reported.

Unilateral measures by the United States in dealing with the global issues have created great problems and challenges for the international community, Larijani noted.

The Iranian speaker made the remarks in an address to the third meeting of the speakers of the Eurasian countries' parliaments in Turkey's Mediterranean coastal city of Antalya.

BEIJING, Oct. 9 (Xinhua) -- China on Tuesday urged the United States to stop "unwarranted slandering and accusations" and to put an end to words and deeds that undermine Sino-U.S. relations.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang made the remarks at a daily news briefing when asked for further comment on the U.S. leader's recent allegations that China is "interfering in" the 2018 mid-term U.S. elections, just one day after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's visit to China.

Beijing, Oct 9 :  China will sell 48 high-end armed drones to its "all-weather ally" Pakistan in what a military observer said will be the largest deal of its kind, official media here reported Tuesday.

The cost of the major defence deal was not revealed.

Wing Loong II is a high-end reconnaissance, strike and multi-role endurance unmanned aerial system, capable of being fitted with air-to-surface weapons.

It is roughly equivalent to the American MQ-9 Reaper drone.

MOSCOW, October 8. /TASS/. Russia has donated to Syria three battalion sets of S-300PM missile systems of eight launchers each, a military diplomatic source told TASS on Monday.

"On October 1, three battalion sets of S-300PM systems of eight launchers each were delivered to Syria," the source said.

MOSCOW, October 9. /TASS/. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts global growth at 3.7% both for this year and next year, 0.2 percentage points below the last assessments, according to the World Economic Outlook report released on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, October 9. /TASS/. Russia will fight against attempts of other countries to inhibit its activity on the international arena, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev wrote in the article for the Voprosi Ekonomiki (Economic Questions) magazine published on Tuesday.

"Every time when our country becomes active on the international arena, it always faces hard attempts to hinder us. We cannot ignore these tendencies, and we will actively fight for a good place in world economy and world politics," Medvedev said.

UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 8 (Xinhua) -- Global trade tensions may lead to a sharp slowdown in economic activity, UN Undersecretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Liu Zhenmin warned on Monday.

Global trade tensions continue to escalate, Liu told the UN General Assembly's Second Committee, which is in charge of economic and financial affairs.

While the direct impact on trade flows remains limited, world trade growth has eased to about 4 percent in 2018 after expanding by more than 5 percent in 2017, said Liu.

Beijing, Oct 8; AFP: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo faced a testy exchange with his Chinese counterpart in Beijing on Monday, days after a blistering US denunciation of the Asian power's global and domestic policies.

Pompeo and Foreign Minister Wang Yi highlighted the schism after the chief US diplomat arrived in Beijing on the final leg of an Asian trip focused on North Korea's nuclear issue.