MICHALOVCE, Slovakia (AP) — A populist former prime minister whose party is favored to win Slovakia’s early parliamentary election plans to reverse the country’s military and political support for neighboring Ukraine, in a direct challenge to the European Union and NATO, if he returns to power.

Robert Fico, who led Slovakia from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2012 to 2018, is the frontrunner to occupy the prime minister’s office after the Sept. 30 election. He and his left-wing Direction, or Smer, party have campaigned on a clear pro-Russian and anti-American message.

SEOUL, Sept 18 (Reuters) - North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is heading home on Monday, most likely with gifts from his Russian hosts including a rifle, a cosmonaut's glove, and military drones - which on their own are a violation of U.N. sanctions.

Following are some of the items he is bringing back to the "friendship" museum, where gifts received by the North's three generations of leaders are kept.

NEW YORK, September 18. /TASS/: The European Union is ready to start discussing the 12th package of anti-Russia sanctions, which may be presented as early as next month, Bloomberg reported citing sources.

New restrictions may be presented in the first half of October, according to their information. Sanctions may be announced during the EU-US summit, which is also scheduled for October, though its precise date has not been given yet, the agency said.

LISALA (Mongala, DRCongo), Sept 18 (NNN-DAILYNEWS) —  Seventeen people have been killed by a landslide in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The disaster occurred overnight on Sunday near the banks of the Congo river, in the northern city of Lisala, the capital of Mongala province.

Seven women, seven men and three children under five years died.

They were buried the same day due to lack of space to keep them at the local mortuary, Lisala official Désiré Koyo said.

BEIJING, Sept 18 (Reuters) - China has complained to Germany after its foreign minister labelled President Xi Jinping a "dictator", the Chinese foreign ministry said on Monday, calling the title "absurd" and an "open political provocation".

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock made the remarks in a live interview with Fox News last week when asked about Russia's war on Ukraine.

"If Putin were to win this war, what sign would that be for other dictators in the world, like Xi, like the Chinese president?" she said.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama high school band director was shocked with a stun gun and arrested after Birmingham police said he wouldn’t tell his band to stop playing.

Local news outlets report that Minor High School’s band director was arrested Thursday night after a football game between Minor and Jackson-Olin High School. He’s charged with disorderly conduct, harassment and resisting arrest.

MOSCOW, September 18. /TASS/: There can be no losers where peace is concerned in Ukraine, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a dinner hosted by the Turkish American National Steering Committee in New York.

"We have achieved many diplomatic successes <…>. Believing that ‘there is no winner of a war, and a loser of a peace", we continue our efforts in a multifaceted manner," Erdogan said in a speech posted on the Turkish presidential office’s website.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — In 2020, North Carolina seemed the model of an evenly-divided swing state. Then-President Donald Trump barely won, beating Democrat Joe Biden by just over a percentage point. Meanwhile, the state’s Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, won reelection by a relatively comfortable 5 points.

Even last year, as Republicans won two seats on the state Supreme Court, North Carolina’s congressional delegation split evenly between Democrats and the GOP.

RAMALLAH, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- The hegemony policy adopted by the United States has been creating unstable situations in the world, a senior Palestinian official has said.

In a recent interview with Xinhua, Abbas Zaki, a Palestinian Fatah Central Committee member and commissioner for relations with Arab countries and China, said, "The U.S. has dealt with other countries in the spirit of hegemony and military power."

MOSCOW, September 18. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin believes that the economic situation on a number of key indicators is better than projected earlier.

"I would like to say at once that on a number of key indicators the situation is much better than previously projected," he said at a meeting on draft federal budget for 2024-2026.

TEHRAN, Sept 18 (NNN-TASNIM) – Iranian intelligence forces, seized a large batch of contraband American arms and equipment from a vessel, upon its entry into the country’s southern waters, it was reported, yesterday.

The shipment, containing more than 6,000 stun guns, was seized in an operation, off the coast of the southern port city of Bandar-e Khamir in Hormozgan province, the provincial Chief Justice, Mojtaba Qahremani, was quoted as saying.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — Two years after the Taliban banned girls from school beyond sixth grade, Afghanistan is the only country in the world with restrictions on female education. Now, the rights of Afghan women and children are on the agenda of the United Nations General Assembly Monday in New York.

The U.N. children’s agency says more than 1 million girls are affected by the ban, although it estimates 5 million were out of school before the Taliban takeover due to a lack of facilities and other reasons.