GENEVA (AP) — A team of experts commissioned by the U.N.’s top human rights body to look into rights violations in Ukraine said Friday its initial investigation turned up evidence of war crimes in the country following Russia’s invasion nearly seven months ago.

The experts from the Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine, mandated by Human Rights Council earlier this year, have so far focused on four regions — Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv and Sumy.

MOSCOW, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Friday that Moscow was not threatening anybody with nuclear weapons, and that open confrontation with the United States and NATO was not in Russia's interests, state news agencies reported.

"We are not threatening anyone with nuclear weapons," the Interfax agency quoted Ryabkov as saying at a conference on Friday. "The criteria for their use are outlined in Russia's military doctrine."

23 Sep 2022; MEMO: Riadh Chaibi, the adviser to the president of Ennahda Movement and a leader in the opposition National Salvation Front said that the movement is innocent of the "dispatch" case, noting that the purpose of raising this case is an attempt to defame the movement. He also confirmed that Tunisia is on the brink of a "social explosion" that could topple the existing authority and cause widespread turmoil in the country.

TEHRAN, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said "destruction, occupation and massacre" have been the consequences of the presence of the United States and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the (West Asia) region, the Iranian presidency's website reported on Friday.

Raisi made the remarks in a meeting with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York on Thursday on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

TAIPEI, Sept 23 (Reuters) - A Chinese blockade of Taiwan or the seizure of an offshore island would be considered an act of war and Taiwan would not surrender, a senior Taiwanese security official told Reuters using unusually strong and direct language.

While Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen and others in her administration have repeatedly said that while they want peace they would defend themselves if attacked, the details of what Taiwan would consider an attack warranting a response have generally been left unsaid, given the many scenarios.

NEW YORK, Sept. 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Thursday met with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly.

Wang said that as a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China is open to dialogue and exchanges with NATO, and is willing to jointly promote the sound and steady development of bilateral relations.

PARIS, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Diplomatic efforts by French President Emmanuel Macron in response to the war in Ukraine were a failure and "deeply harmful" for Kyiv, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former NATO secretary-general, said in an interview published on Friday.

"It was not a success", Rasmussen, a former Danish prime minister who was one of the world's most-senior diplomats until he left the transatlantic defence alliance in 2014, told French magazine Le Point.

BRUSSELS, Sept 23 (Reuters) - European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has warned Italy of consequences should it veer away from democratic principles, issuing a barely veiled threat ahead of Sunday's election that a rightist bloc led by Giorgia Meloni is expected to win.

The comments highlighted concern in some European capitals over the forthcoming election and suggested that relations between Brussels and Rome could get turbulent if Meloni and her partners secure victory.

23 Sep 2022; MEMO: The Afek Tounes Party announced, on Thursday, its intention to boycott the early legislative elections on 17th December.

By so doing, Afeq Tounes becomes the eleventh party to announce its boycott of the elections after Ennahda, Heart of Tunisia, Dignity Coalition, Movement Party, Al Amal, the Republican Party, Workers' Party, Democratic Modernist Pole, Democratic Current, and the Democratic Forum for Labour and Liberties.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranian counterprotesters gathered across the country on Friday in a show of support for authorities after nearly a week of anti-government protests and unrest over the death of a young woman who was being held by the morality police.

A few thousand people attended a rally in the capital, Tehran, where they waved Iranian flags, and similar demonstrations were held in other cities. The government claimed the demonstrations of support were spontaneous. Similar rallies have been held during past periods of widespread protests.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — The death toll from a boat carrying migrants from Lebanon that sank in Syrian waters has risen to at least 73, state TV quoted Syria’s health minister as saying on Friday.

Syrian authorities said some family members of the victims have started crossing into Syria from neighboring Lebanon to help identify their loved ones and retrieve their bodies.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in Pennsylvania, released his health records as he maneuvers to keep questions about Democratic rival John Fetterman’s recovery from a stroke front and center in the hotly contested campaign.

Dr. Rebecca Kurth in New York City wrote in a four-page letter that she found the 62-year-old heart surgeon-turned-TV celebrity to be in “excellent health” in an annual checkup Thursday.