WORLD

Last month China became the first country to approve a needle-free Covid vaccine, an aerosolised mist inhaled through the nose and mouth using a nebuliser device, while India greenlit a homegrown nasal drop vaccine days later.

On November 2, 2020, convicted Islamic State sympathiser Kujtim Fejzulai went on a shooting rampage in downtown Vienna, killing four and wounding 23 others before police shot him dead.

Northeastern Brazil's harsh, semi-arid Sertao region is the birthplace of this unique rodeo tradition, in which cowhands on horseback chase a charging bull through thick, cactus-strewn scrubland, racing to grab a leather tag from around his neck.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the city's status should be decided through peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians, and not through unilateral decisions.

Benin and Niger in July signed an agreement to fight "terrorism" through joint military operations and exchanges of information.

Kyiv and its Western allies fear tactical nuclear weapons could be used in battle after Putin and others warned Russia was prepared to use all its vast arsenal in defence.

The dispute reflects a broader, heated debate in Germany over how to reduce dependency on China, its top trading partner, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine highlighted the dangers of reliance on an increasingly assertive, authoritarian state.

Gross domestic product is set to increase just 0.8% next year compared with 2.7% in 2022, according to median estimates in a sample of 39 economists polled Oct. 4-13.

With the Conservative party plunging in opinion polls, social media has been full of memes and jokes revelling in its woes.

The foundation, which went live in January 2021, aims to "mobilise more support for the WHO, from the public, from businesses, from philanthropists," its chief executive Anil Soni told AFP.

The EU ministers are set to impose travel bans and freeze the assets of some 15 Iranians involved in the government crackdown that began last month against demonstrators outraged by the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.

The drought threatens Kansas, the top winter wheat growing state, and Oklahoma.

Leading unions have called for strikes Tuesday in their biggest challenge yet to President Emmanuel Macron since he won a new presidential term in May.

Cinema once flourished in Gaza, with audiences flocking to see Arab, Western and Asian films but the movie houses were torched in the First Intifada in 1987 and then burned down again in 1996 during another wave of internal violence.

Amini, a 22-year-old from Kurdistan province in northwest Iran, died in the custody of the Islamic Republic's morality police after she was detained for violating strict codes requiring women to dress modestly in public.

The government said it had requisitioned six workers at a TotalEnergies depot in Dunkirk, northern France, and would do the same at its Feyzin depot in the southeast this afternoon.

"We are astonished by the accusations that the kingdom is standing with Russia in its war with Ukraine," the Saudi defence minister, Prince Khaled bin Salman, tweeted late Sunday.

Support for Kishida's government has tumbled to its lowest since he took office a year ago on growing anger that members of his Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) did not fully disclose their ties to the church.

Madrid ended the Catalans' seven-game winning streak in the league and added to the still-raw pain of their struggles in Europe, where they are on the verge of Champions League elimination.

Europe is embroiled in long-running disputes with Beijing over trade, environment, education, raw materials, intellectual property -- but so far video games are not part of the fight.

Authorities in the Islamic republic have blamed the fire late Saturday on "riots and clashes" among prisoners, but human rights groups said they doubted the official version of events and also feared the real toll could be even higher.

Russia has been falling back in its offensive -- but in Bakhmut, unlike across most of the front line, Ukrainians are on the defensive.

The timing couldn't be worse for policymakers in Beijing, as the economy wobbles under the weight of global recession risks, surging commodity costs, rising geopolitical tension and widespread COVID-19 lockdowns at home.

Several blasts hit the district after 8 a.m. (0500 GMT), when many people rush to work or school, just over an hour after the first wave of explosions hit some residential buildings.

Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Tonga - the only Pacific Island nations with militaries - are members, as are New Zealand, France, Australia and Chile.

Portugal is one a handful of EU member states -- along with Belgium and Sweden -- to have renounced coal as an energy source.

The attacks come exactly a week after Russia unleashed a massive wave of missile strikes on the Ukrainian capital and cities across the country.

Foreign ministers from the bloc's 27 members states are expected to sign off on the decisions at a meeting in Luxembourg and diplomats say the mission should become operational next month.

Authorities said Turkish prosecutors have launched an investigation into the cause of the incident but initial indications were that the blast was caused by firedamp, a term referring to methane in coal mines.