MEXICO CITY (AP) — At least 16 migrants from Venezuela and Haiti died early Friday in a bus crash in southern Mexico, authorities said.

Mexico’s National Immigration Institute originally reported 18 dead, but later lowered that figure. Prosecutors in the southern state of Oaxaca later said there had been an overcount due to some of the bodies being dismembered, and that the real death toll was 16.

Both sources said the dead include two women and three children, and that 29 people were injured. There was no immediate information on their condition.

ANKARA, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday he did not "recognise LGBT" and vowed to combat "perverse" trends which he said aimed to destroy the institution of family in the country.

Turkey's government, led by Erdogan and his Islamist-rooted AK Party, has toughened its stance on LGBTQ freedoms in recent months, particularly while campaigning for this year's elections in May.

Homosexuality is not a crime in Turkey, but hostility to it is widespread, and police crackdowns on Pride parades have become tougher over the years.

TEHRAN Oct 7 (Reuters) - Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, told fellow Arab countries on Saturday that Israel cannot provide them with any protection despite recent diplomatic rapprochements.

Hamas launched the biggest attack on Israelin years on Saturday, killing dozens of people and taking hostages in a surprise assault that combined gunmen crossing into Israel with a barrage of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip.

MOSCOW, October 7. /TASS/: Sarmat, the first serial intercontinental ballistic missiles produced by Krasmash, will be deployed to combat duty in the near future, the Russian Ministry of Defense said on Saturday.

"At the moment, the enterprise is making the first mass-produced missiles, which will be deployed to combat duty in the near future," the ministry said.

NAIROBI, Oct. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese-built Mombasa-Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) has been a catalyst for transformation in Kenya since its launch six years ago, a group of foreign envoys based in Kenya have said.

Speaking during a ride at the SGR passenger train from Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, to the coastal city of Mombasa Friday, the envoys noted that the modern railway project has unleashed myriad benefits including seamless mobility of people and cargo, revitalization of commerce and investments along its 472-km corridor.

BRASILIA, Oct 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by 59 percent in September compared to the same month last year, official data showed, confirming a positive trend that began after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva returned to power this year.

However, it hit new highs in the tropical savannah region known as the Cerrado, south of the Amazon, which has been hit by incursions from farming companies.

SEOUL, Oct 7 (Reuters) - Rail traffic along the North Korea-Russia border spiked this week to the highest in years, suggesting arms supply by Pyongyang to Moscow after their leaders discussed deeper military cooperation, a U.S. think tank said on Friday.

Satellite imagery showed an "unprecedented" 73 or so freight cars at Tumangang Rail Station in the North Korean border city of Rason, the Beyond Parallel Project of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a report.

Oct 7 (Reuters) - Ramzan Kadyrov, head of Russia's Chechnya region and close ally of President Vladimir Putin, proposed on Saturday that a presidential election due next March should either be postponed due to the war in Ukraine or limited to one candidate - Putin.

The Kremlin leader, who turned 71 on Saturday, has said he will not announce if he will run before parliament calls the election, which by law it is due to do in December.

07 October 2023; MEMO: Hospitals in Israel have confirmed that more than 100 Israelis have been wounded in rocket strikes across south and central Israel, some in critical condition, The Times of Israel reported.

Soraka Medical Centre in Beersheba received 80 wounded, some in very serious condition.

CHICAGO, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- United Auto Workers (UAW) President Shawn Fain Friday proclaimed that "our strike is working," after the Big Three U.S. automakers made concessions in the negotiations this week.

"We are making significant progress," Fain said during a Facebook livestream Friday afternoon as the union's strike against the Big Three U.S. automakers entered the 22nd day. "In just three weeks, we have moved these companies further than anyone thought was possible."

NOVO-OGAREVO, October 7. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin, along with the leaders of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, started Russian gas supplies to these two countries.

Putin previously emphasized that Russian gas has never been supplied to Central Asia before. Now, "blue fuel" from Russia will be sent to Uzbekistan via Kazakhstan, with a share of it also going to Kazakhstan. According to the Russian President, this is a mutually beneficial project that aims to improve the region's energy security.

07 October 2023; MEMO: Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh called on Friday for international intervention to stop what he described as “terrorism” committed by settlers in the West Bank, while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs called for prosecuting an Israeli minister due to his “racist” statements.

Shtayyeh’s call came in statements conveyed by government spokesperson Ibrahim Melhem, a copy of which Anadolu Agency received.