05 September 2023; MEMO: Almost 300 female students turned up for the new school year in France on Monday wearing an abaya, despite the loose full-length robe worn by Muslim women as a sign of modesty being banned in schools by the French authorities, Anadolu has reported.

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Attorneys for convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh want a new trial, accusing the court clerk of improperly influencing the jury and betraying her oath of office for money and fame.

They’ve accused the court clerk at his double murder trial of telling jurors not to trust him when he testified in his own defense, having private conversations with the jury foreperson and pressuring jurors to come to a quick verdict.

MOSCOW, September 4. /TASS/: Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's statements about Russia in an interview with Italian media are unacceptable in tone and Moscow is extremely dissatisfied with them, a diplomatic source has told TASS.

04 September 2023; MEMO: Calling education a “shared need of Muslims”, the interim Taliban administration, on Monday, urged “patience” on the issue of girl’s education in Afghanistan, Anadolu Agency reports.

Sept 4 (Reuters) - Kim Jong Un plans to travel to Russia this month to meet President Vladimir Putin and discuss the possibility of supplying Moscow with weapons for the war in Ukraine, as Russia says it is seeking closer military ties with North Korea.

In a rare trip abroad, Kim would travel from Pyongyang, probably by armoured train, to Vladivostok, on the Pacific Coast of Russia, where he would meet Putin, the New York Times reported on Monday, citing U.S. and allied sources.

MOSCOW, Sept 4 (Reuters) - A new photo appearing to show Russian General Sergei Surovikin, who has not been seen in public since a brief mutiny by the Wagner mercenary group in June, was published on social media on Monday by a well known Russian media personality.

"General Sergei Surovikin is out. Alive, healthy, at home, with his family, in Moscow. Photo taken today," Ksenia Sobchak wrote in a caption to the picture on Telegram.

KABUL, Sept 4 (NNN-ANA) – A delegation of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), recently visited Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, with attendance of scholars from the Islamic countries, local media reported.

According to TOLOnews, the delegation had discussions with Afghan authorities, on essential issues such as moderation in Islam, women’s education, and women’s participation in different jobs.

KYIV/BUCHAREST, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Ukraine said on Monday Russian drones had detonated on the territory of NATO member Romania during an overnight air strike on a Ukrainian port across the Danube River, but Bucharest denied its territory had been hit.

Reuters could not independently verify either account, a rare report of stray weapons from the war in Ukraine hitting a neighbouring member of the Western military alliance.

SOCHI, September 4. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the Ukrainian counter-offensive has failed. He expects that this trend on the frontline will continue.

"As for the stalling of the counter-offensive (of Ukrainian troops - TASS), it is not a stalling, it is a failure," Putin told a news conference following talks with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"In any case, this is how it looks as of today," he remarked.

"We'll see what happens next. I hope it will continue to be like this," Putin said.

BEIJING, Sept 4 (Reuters) - Chinese President Xi Jinping's first major reform plans a decade ago were also his boldest, envisaging a transition to a Western-style free market economy driven by services and consumption by 2020.

The 60-point agenda was meant to fix an obsolete growth model better suited to less developed countries - however, most of those reforms have gone nowhere leaving the economy largely reliant on older policies that have only added to China's massive debt pile and industrial overcapacity.

SANAA, Sept 4 (NNN-SABA) – A massive explosion rocked a gas station, in the Houthi-controlled Yemen’s capital of Sanaa last night, igniting a significant fire, reported by authorities and witnesses.

The blast occurred at the Mufazer gas station, which is situated in front of the al-Khurafi military camp, in the north-eastern part of the capital. Houthi forces cordoned off the area, with civil defence teams swiftly responding to the incident.

JAKARTA, Sept 5 (Reuters) - Southeast Asian leaders will on Tuesday converge on the Indonesian capital for an annual summit amid rifts within the 10-member regional bloc over stalled peace efforts in Myanmar and a sharpening U.S.-China rivalry in the region.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is seeking to clarify its relevance as cracks emerge in its response to the conflict in Myanmar, where the military seized power in a bloody coup in 2021.