MOSCOW, September 19. /TASS/: The US has not contacted Russia about talking at the UN General Assembly in New York and Moscow does not see what benefit this would have anyway, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told TASS.

"The schedule of [Russian Foreign] Minister [Sergey Lavrov] is extremely intensive. Bilateral interaction with the US side is not planned and, considering the policy adopted by Washington, we do not see any added value in it. Especially because we have not received any requests on the matter," he added.

YEREVAN, Armenia (AP) — Azerbaijan on Tuesday began what it called an “anti-terrorist operation” targeting Armenian military positions in the Nagorno-Karabakh region and officials in the area reported heavy artillery firing around its capital.

The Azerbaijani defense ministry announced the start of the operation hours after four soldiers and two civilians died in landmine explosions in the Nagorno-Karabakh region. The reports raised concerns that a full-scale war over the region could resume between Azerbaijan and Armenia, which fought heavily for six weeks in 2020.

KABUL, Sept 19 (NNN-ANA) – Police have smashed hashish farms in the eastern Afghanistan’s Panjshir province, and asked farmers to avoid cultivation of illegal crops including poppy and hashish, provincial police said, in a statement today.

The counter-narcotics police launched operations against illegal crops and destroyed six acres of hashish farm in Parian district of the province yesterday, according to the statement.

In a similar operation against illegal crops, police smashed a hashish farm in the northern Samangan province on Sunday.

DERNA, Libya (AP) — The prime minister of Libya’s eastern administration said Tuesday that authorities have divided the flood-stricken city of Derna into four sections to create buffers in case of disease outbreaks, a day after thousands of angry protesters demanded the city’s rapid reconstruction.

Last week, two dams collapsed during Mediterranean storm Daniel, sending a wall of water gushing through Derna. Government officials and aid agencies have given death tolls ranging from about 4,000 to 11,000.

KYIV, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Six people were killed in Russian attacks on Ukraine on Tuesday, including a drone strike that set ablaze industrial warehouses and destroyed humanitarian aid supplies in the western city of Lviv, officials said.

They said one person was killed in Lviv, three were killed in an attack on the northeastern town of Kupiansk, and two people, including a policeman, were killed in shelling of the southern city of Kherson.

TOKYO, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Japan's Okinawa Governor Denny Tamaki told a United Nations session on Monday in Switzerland that the concentration of U.S. military bases in the southern prefecture threatens peace.

He also expressed his opposition to the Japanese government's plan to build a new U.S. military base despite public concerns, according to local media reports.

MOSCOW, September 19. /TASS/: Moscow is dissatisfied with Yerevan's statements that bilateral ties will be unaffected by its clearly anti-Russian moves, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a news briefing.

BUENAVENTURA, Colombia (AP) — Officers wade through rows of abandoned wooden homes teetering above a mangrove-cloaked river – one of the key channels used by gangs to move drugs and weapons through this long-neglected swath of Colombia’s Pacific coast.

Each step for them is a reminder: Control here remains not with the law, but with those whose names are spoken in whispers in their city. Los Shottas and Los Espartanos.

NEW YORK, Sept 19 (NNN-Bernama) — Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim will meet leaders from at least five countries, and captain of industries during his working visit here as he continues efforts to strengthen Malaysia’s international standing and lure investment to the country. 

Malaysian Foreign Minister Zambry Abd Kadir said Anwar, who is scheduled to deliver National Statement at the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Friday, will hold bilateral meetings with leaders from Turkiye, Iran, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Iraq. 

MOSCOW, Sept 19 (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin will meet China's Xi Jinping for talks in Beijing in October, Russia said on Tuesday, Putin's first known trip abroad since an arrest warrant was issued against him over the deportation of children from Ukraine.

Nikolai Patrushev, a close Putin ally and the secretary of Russia's Security Council, said Russia and China should deepen cooperation in the face of the West's attempt to contain them both.

VIENNA/KYIV, Sept 19 (Reuters) - In his years as the chief executive of one of Ukraine's biggest construction firms, Oleh Maiboroda kept rolls of dollar bills in a safe behind his desk.

The money, Maiboroda told Reuters, was intended to bribe public officials to approve building projects. The task of handing over the cash, he said, was entrusted to a lawyer named Oleh Tatarov, now a senior adviser to Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

MOSCOW, September 19. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will address the General Debate of the United Nations General Assembly on September 23, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing.

"The key event of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's stay in New York will be his speech at the General Debate of the UN General Assembly. His speech is scheduled for September 23," the diplomat said.