PYONGYANG, October 18. /TASS/: Moscow expresses solidarity and full support for Pyongyang's course of safeguarding its independence and right to determine its development guidelines, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at an official government reception.

"Russia expresses solidarity and full support for the determination of the DPRK under the guidance of its leader, comrade Kim Jong Un to defend its independence and the right of its people to determine their own fate and ways of development," Lavrov pointed out.

WASHINGTON (AP) — At a time when Americans are deeply divided along party lines, a new poll shows considerable agreement on at least one issue: The United States’ two-decade-long war in Afghanistan was not worth fighting.

CAIRO, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi expressed Wednesday Egypt's firm support for the Palestinian people and a strong opposition to any attempts to relocate them to the adjacent Sinai Peninsula.

In a joint press conference with visiting German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Cairo, Sisi said "we reject the displacement of Palestinians from their land" and expressed concerns that the current escalations in the Gaza Strip are "bids to force Palestinians to seek to enter Egypt's Sinai."

MOSCOW, October 18. /TASS/: Russian forces have destroyed over 8,000 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles since the start of the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Wednesday.

ADDIS ABABA, Oct 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The African Union chief Moussa Faki Mahamat accused Israel of a “war crime” following the deadly strike on a hospital in the Gaza strip on Tuesday.

   “There are no words to fully express our condemnation of Israel’s bombing of a #Gaza hospital today, killing hundreds of people,” Faki said on X, formerly Twitter, calling for the international community to act.

   The health ministry in the Hamas-run Palestinian territory said Israeli air strikes on the hospital compound sheltering displaced people had killed at least 200 people.

ISTANBUL, Oct. 17 (Xinhua) -- Turkish police on Tuesday rounded up 17 suspects accused of transferring money to Islamic State (IS) members in a large-scale operation in Istanbul, local media reported.

Authorities found that the suspects were illegally transferring money between Türkiye and conflict zones through companies and individuals, the private news agency Demiroren said.

16 October 2023; MEMO: Spain’s acting Social Rights Minister suggested taking Israel to the International Criminal Court for “war crimes,” local media reported.

Ione Belarra shared a video accusing the European Union and the US of “being complicit in Israel’s war crimes,” the Spanish daily, El Mundo, said on Sunday.

16 October 2023; MEMO: International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP) has today issued UK Labour leader Keir Starmer, Shadow Attorney General for England and Wales Emily Thornberry and Shadow Defence Secretary David Lammy with a notice of intention to prosecute UK politicians for their role in aiding and abetting Israel’s perpetration of war crimes.

17 October 2023; MEMO: Nearly 1,000 US citizens and family members have departed Israel on State Department-sponsored charter flights and other transport options since Friday for Europe, a department spokesperson told Reuters yesterday.

The State Department said it had offered more than 4,000 seats on US government-chartered transport by air and sea to US citizens and immediate family but said the flights and other departure options have generally departed at half capacity or less.

17 October 2023; MEMO: The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is set to hold an urgent meeting tomorrow to discuss the rapidly deteriorating situation in Gaza, amid Israel’s ongoing bombardment of the Strip and its efforts to ethnically cleanse it.

16 October 2023; MEMO: Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has planned to hold separate phone conversations with Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, the President’s Advisor on Foreign Policy issues, Yury Ushakov, said on Monday, Anadolu Agency reports.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday ordered two internet sellers of gun parts to comply with a Biden administration regulation aimed at ghost guns, firearms that are difficult to trace because they lack serial numbers.