WELLINGTON, Dec 18 (NNN-RNZ) – New Zealand Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, said today, he will travel to Sydney on Wednesday, to meet with Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese.

“The coalition government will be engaging internationally with new urgency and intensity, to invest in relationships, increase prosperity and enhance our security,” Luxon said.

Australia is New Zealand’s most important partner, he said, adding that, the two countries are deeply connected and have strong people-to-people ties.

LONDON (AP) — A member of Britain’s House of Lords has acknowledged that she repeatedly lied about her links to a company that was awarded lucrative government contracts to supply protective masks and gowns during the coronavirus pandemic.

Underwear tycoon Michelle Mone said that she had made an “error” in denying connections to the company PPE Medpro, and regretted threatening to sue journalists who alleged she had ties to the firm. Her husband, Doug Barrowman, has acknowledged he led the consortium that owns the company.

WASHINGTON, Dec 18 (Reuters) - When the Pentagon pulled the world's biggest defense contractors into a meeting to tell them to ramp up production shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine, one CEO hesitated, saying they did not want to be stuck with a warehouse full of rockets when the fighting stopped, according to three people familiar with the discussion.

DUBAI, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Mounting attacks by the Iran-aligned Yemeni Houthi militant group on ships in the Red Sea are disrupting maritime trade as leading global freight firms reroute around the Cape of Good Hope to avoid the Suez canal.

The group said it launched a drone attack on a cargo vessel in the area on Monday, the latest in a series of missile and drone strikes on shipping which it says are a response to Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip.

MOSCOW, December 18. /TASS/: Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin will visit China over the next two days, and is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Chinese State Council Premier Li Qiang, the Russian government said in a press release.

"On December 19-20, 2023, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin will visit China under an agreement with the Chinese side," the statement said.

BELGRADE, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- Coalition around the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) won over 127 out of 250 seats at the snap parliamentary election, announced the country's President Aleksandar Vucic at the headquarters of SNS on Sunday.

"This is an absolute victory that makes me very happy," Vucic said, noting that the coalition around SNS also won the elections in Serbia's northern province of Vojvodina.

TOKYO, Dec 18 (NNN-Bernama) — Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim in an exclusive interview with Japan’s leading media group The Nikkei once again highlighted the hypocrisy over the crisis in Gaza by “so-called countries that promote democracy and human rights.” 

This insightful interview conducted by journalist Norman Goh on the sidelines of the ASEAN-Japan Commemorative Summit on Sunday is featured in Nikkei Asia, the flagship publication of Nikkei, Inc., and the world’s largest financial newspaper. 

MOSCOW (AP) — Delegates from Russia’s ruling party unanimously backed President Vladimir Putin ’s bid for reelection at a party conference in Moscow on Sunday, state agencies reported, just a day after the Kremlin leader’s supporters formally nominated him to run in the 2024 presidential election as an independent.

A little-known Russian presidential hopeful who calls for peace in Ukraine also inched closer towards formally registering as a candidate, securing a nomination from a group of more than 500 supporters in the Russian capital.

ISLAMABAD, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Pakistan's jailed former prime minister, Imran Khan, whose party isn't allowed to hold public rallies, used an audio clip generated by artificial intelligence (AI) late Sunday to address a virtual rally in the first event of its kind in the country.

HONG KONG (AP) — A landmark national security trial opened Monday in Hong Kong for prominent activist publisher Jimmy Lai, who faces a possible life sentence if convicted under a law imposed by Beijing to crush dissidents.

Lai, 76, was arrested in August 2020 during a crackdown on the city’s pro-democracy movement under the sweeping national security law enacted following huge protests four years ago. He is charged with colluding with foreign forces to endanger national security and conspiring with others to put out seditious publications.

DUBAI, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Iran's Oil Minister Javad Owji on Monday confirmed that a nationwide disruption to petrol stations was caused by a cyberattack.

A hacking group that Iran accuses of having links to Israel claimed it carried out the attack which disrupted services at petrol stations across the country on Monday, Iranian state TV and Israeli local media reported.

NICOSIA, December 18. /TASS/: Ersin Tatar, leader of the Turkish Cypriots, asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to consider establishing direct diplomatic relations between Russia and the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

“We would like our relations with Russia to develop and expand, so I express my gratitude to all Russians, and I also ask Russian authorities and President Putin personally to consider the issue of relations with Northern Cyprus,” Tatar, who holds the office of the President of Northern Cyprus, told TASS.