World

Jerusalem, Sep 16 (IANS) Israel closed the registration for political parties intending to run in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

The Central Elections Committee said on Thursday in a statement that the submission of candidate lists has been concluded after being opened to individual candidates and parties for two days, resulting in 40 lists running for the elections scheduled on November 1.

Less than an hour before the deadline, the Arab party of Balad announced it will run solo, splitting from the Joint List, a large alliance of Arab parties in the parliament, effectively breaking apart the alliance that has already lost the Ra'am Party which quitted over political differences in early 2021, Xinhua news agency reported.

TV polls predict that Balad might not pass the electoral threshold needed to get it into parliament. Commentators on the state-owned Kan TV news said the move might mean former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's bloc will get an extra seat to a total of 61 seats, according to polls.

Recent polls predict that only about 12 parties would pass the electoral threshold, with prospects suggesting yet another political deadlock between a bloc of supporters of Netanyahu and a bloc calling to replace him, led by current caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid, also a leader of the centrist Yesh Atid Party, and Benny Gantz, Defence Minister and leader of the National Unity Party.

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United Nations, Sep 16 (IANS) The UN Security Council adopted a resolution to renew the mandate of a UN investigative team for crimes committed by the Islamic State (IS) in Iraq.

Resolution 2651, which won the unanimous support of the 15-member council, on Thursday decides to extend the mandate of the UN Investigative Team to Promote Accountability for Crimes Committed by Da'esh/Islamic State (UNITAD) for a year, till September 17, 2023.

Any further extension of UNITAD's mandate will be decided at the request of the Iraqi government or any other government that has requested the team to collect evidence of acts that may amount to war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide, committed by the IS in its territory, says the resolution.

The resolution requests the special adviser, who heads UNITAD, to continue to submit and present reports to the Security Council on the team's activities every 180 days, Xinhua news agency reported.

UNITAD was authorised by the Security Council in September 2017 to support Iraq's efforts in holding the IS accountable for the crimes the terrorist group committed in Iraq. The team became fully operational in November 2019.

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Islamabad, Sep 16 (IANS) Pakistan has received a total of 100 international flights carrying relief items for flood victims since August 28, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said.

The humanitarian relief goods include food items, tents, blankets, medical supplies, survival and hygiene equipment, and high-capacity water pumps, according to the spokesperson on Thursday.

Earlier, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that devastating floods have caused immense damage with the communication system, crops, houses and roads completely destroyed in parts of Pakistan, Xinhua news agency reported.

The federal government has allocated 70 billion rupees (nearly $295.5 million) for the victims, while 24 billion rupees have already been distributed to the flood victims, the Prime Minister added on Wednesday.

According to the latest figures released by the National Disaster Management Authority, the floods in the country have killed 1,508 people, injured more than 12,000 others and left thousands homeless since mid-June.

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Samarkand, Sep 15 (IANS) Economic cooperation between Russia and China will continue to strengthen, reaching new heights in the near future, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit while meeting with China's leader, Xi Jinping, RT reported.

"Multifaceted ties between our countries are actively developing. Last year, the trade turnover increased by 35 per cent and exceeded $140 billion," Putin said, adding that in the first seven months of this year, the volume of mutual trade grew by another 25 per cent.

"I am convinced that by the end of the year, we will reach new record levels, and in the near future, as agreed, we will increase the annual trade turnover to $200 billion or more," he added, RT reported.

Last month, Beijing's ambassador to Moscow expressed hope that Russia-China trade could reach the targeted milestone of $200 billion this year.

He pointed out that economic cooperation between the two nations shows excellent results and sustainable development, despite the challenges associated with the Covid-19 pandemic, the global economic downturn, and difficult international and regional situations.

Vladimir Putin has thanked President Xi Jinping for China's "balanced position" on Ukraine, in their first face-to-face talks since Russia invaded the country, BBC reported.

The Russian leader met his counterpart at a summit in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, where he condemned "attempts to create a unipolar world".

Xi said China was willing to work together with Russia as "great powers", BBC reported.

China hasn't endorsed Russia's invasion but has steadily grown trade and other ties with Moscow since it was launched.

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New York, Sep 15 (IANS) Two-time Grand Slam champion Simona Halep announced on Thursday she will miss the rest of the season after undergoing nose surgery.

Halep said that she was unclear how long recovery would take, but won't participate in any more events in 2022.

"My 2022 season is over. 2022, you have been an interesting year full of everything! See you on court, 2023. I feel I still have a lot to do on a tennis court and still have the same goals," she wrote on social media.

In the same post, Halep, 30, also conceded she was "very close" to calling it a career back in February. Two months later, she announced Patrick Mouratoglou as her full time head coach after spending some time in his academy.

"Thanks to Patrick, I slowly started to believe that I still can play a good level of tennis. … I gave myself one year to get back into the Top 10."

In August, Halep won the National Bank Open, a WTA 1000-level event in Toronto, and returned to the Top 10 for the first time in more than a year, thus achieving that goal in only two months.

However, a first-round loss at the US Open to qualifier Daria Snigur followed, and Halep realized she needed a break.

"When I lost at the US Open, I realized that I'm completely exhausted mentally. Having problems with the breathing for many years already and becoming worse with the time, I decided to follow the advice of my doctors and do the needed surgery."

Halep has won two titles this season, taking her career total to 24.

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London, Sep 15 (IANS) The plane carrying Queen Elizabeth II's coffin has broken records to become the most-tracked flight ever, according to an aviation tracker website.

The website, Flightradar 24, said that about five million people followed along online as the late Queen was flown from Edinburgh to London on Tuesday, CNN reported.

That number is derived from two sources -- 4.79 million people who followed the flight's journey on Flightradar24's website and mobile app, plus an additional 296,000 who tracked the plane on YouTube.

That smashes the previous record, achieved just last month during US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's controversial visit to Taiwan.

Her plane's journey to Taipei was tracked by about 2.9 million people, CNN quoted the website as saying.

The Royal Air Force plane carrying the Queen spent an hour and 12 minutes in flight.

It landed at RAF Northolt, a military station about six miles from Heathrow Airport in London.

From Northolt, the Queen's coffin was taken to Buckingham Palace.

On Wednesday, the coffin was be escorted to Westminster Hall, Parliament, where the Queen will lie in state until her funeral on September 19 in Westminster Abbey, CNN reported.

Before Pelosi's Taiwan visit, the most popular flight search on Flightradar24 was Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny's flight back to Russia, where he was going to be put in prison upon arrival in 2021.

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Damascus, Sep 15 (IANS) Syrian missiles and Russian warplanes hit positions of ultra-radical rebel groups in the war-torn country's northwestern province of Idlib, state media reported.

A number of rebels, including their foreign coaches, were either killed or wounded in Wednesday's coordinated Syrian-Russian strikes that targeted rebels' training camps in the countryside of Idlib, Xinhua news agency quoted the state media report as saying.

The eport added that foreign trainers were teaching local rebels about carrying out drone attacks.

The nationalities or the number of the targeted foreign trainers were not revealed.

Meanwhile, the report said the rebels' positions, vehicles and drones were destroyed during the attack, which was planned after a reconnaissance operation.

Rebels in Idlib used to launch drone attacks on positions of the Russian forces in coastal areas.

Russia officially joined the Syrian government side in the battle against the rebels in Syria in 2015.

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Beijing, Sep 15 (IANS) Muifa, the 12th typhoon of this year, made the first landfall on the coast of Zhoushan in China's Zhejiang province, and the second on Thursday in Shanghai's Fengxian district, authorities have said.

The first landfall was recorded at about 8.30 p.m. on Wednesday night and the second at 12.30 a.m on Thursday, reports Xinhua news agency.

The typhoon packed winds of up to 151.2 km per hour at its centre when it landed on the coast of Putuo in Zhoushan, according to the provincial flood control, typhoon and drought relief headquarters.

The headquarters upgraded the typhoon emergency response level to Level I -- the highest level -- at 5 p.m. Tuesday.

Local authorities also issued a red alert for flash floods on Wednesday morning.

By Wednesday evening, over 1.3 million Zhejiang residents were relocated to avoid potential casualties, while a total of 11,680 fishing boats returned to port.

Meanwhile in Shanghai, the typhoon packed winds of up to 126 km per hour and had an atmospheric pressure of 975 hectopascals at its centre when it landed.

A total of 10 typhoons have made landfall in Shanghai since 1949, with Muifa being the strongest.

Muifa is expected to weaken while moving across the provinces of Jiangsu and Shandong, and will gradually become an extratropical cyclone on Friday after entering the Bohai Sea.

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Islamabad, Sep 15 (IANS) Dengue cases are on the rise in Pakistan in the wake of the catastrophic flooding across the country triggered by record monsoon rain since mid-June, the media reported on Thursday.

As relief and rescue operations continue, officials have warned of a looming health crisis with a surge in dengue, malaria and severe gastric infections, reports the BBC.

About 3,830 cases of dengue fever have been reported by health officials in Sindh province, one of the worst-hit regions, with at least nine deaths.

"The overall situation in Sindh is very bad, we are organising medical camps all over the province. Most of the cases we are seeing now are of dengue patients followed closely by malaria," Abdul Ghafoor Shoro, secretary general of the Pakistan Medical Association, told the BBC.

"The dengue burden is the same all over the province and it's increasing daily. When we checked with the laboratories, the suspected cases are around 80 per cent of tests being done."

Shoro, who has been treating scores of dengue patients at Agha Khan hospital in Karachi, told the BBC that the situation is only going to worsen in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, the overall death toll in Pakistan from this season's monsoon rains and floods has increased to 1,486, along with 12,749 injured, according to the latest update by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

The NDMA further added that 179,281 people have been rescued and 546,288 others are currently living in camps.

Some 33 million people across the country have been affected so far.

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Islamabad, Sep 15 (IANS) At least five people were killed and one was injured in heavy monsoon rain-triggered flash floods in the last 24 hours in Pakistan, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said.

Two children and a woman were among those who lost their lives in separate flood-related incidents, according to an NDMA report released on Wednesday evening.

The country's southwestern Balochistan province was the worst-hit region with three killed, followed by the northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province which reported two deaths, the report said.

Moreover, 5,091 houses were destroyed, 10,336 livestock animals perished and 300 km-long roads were damaged in different parts of Pakistan, it added.

The total death toll in Pakistan from this season's monsoon rains and floods since mid-June has risen to around 1,486, along with 12,749 injured, the NDMA said.

The NDMA further added that 179,281 people have been rescued and 546,288 others are currently living in camps, Xinhua news agency reported.

Rescue and relief operations by the NDMA, other government organisations, volunteers and non-governmental organisations were underway in the flood-hit areas.

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