NEW DELHI, Sept 3 (NNN-PTI) – Two people were killed, and five others injured, early today after a two-story building collapsed in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, officials said.

The building collapsed on Darga Road in Bhiwandi area of Thane district, about 37 km north-east of Mumbai, the capital city of Maharashtra.

Sept 3 (Reuters) - Traffic on the main bridge linking the Russian mainland with the Crimean Peninsula resumed after a brief suspension early on Sunday, the Russian-installed operator of the bridge said on the Telegram messaging app.

The administration did not disclose the reason for the suspension. Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine in 2014 in a move condemned by many Western governments as illegal.

The Crimean Bridge has been a target of increased air and sea drone attacks in recent months.

ZAGREB, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Croatian President Zoran Milanovic said here on Monday that his country has been supporting Montenegro's entry into the European Union (EU) for years and will continue to do so.

"As much as we can help, we will help," Milanovic said at a joint press conference with his visiting Montenegrin counterpart, Jakov Milatovic, who arrived in the capital of Croatia on Monday for a two-day official visit.

Milatovic said that he appreciated Croatia's support and that Montenegro's EU membership would be a "positive signal" to the rest of the region.

YUZHNO-SAKHALINSK, September 3. /TASS/: Japan is becoming increasingly more involved in a confrontation with Russia by providing military aid to Ukraine, Deputy Head of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said.

"It is also bad that Japan located nearby is more and more actively providing aid to the Kiev regime and pulling itself into the military confrontation," Medvedev said during his visit to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk.

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron opened the door Monday to experimenting in some public schools with uniforms or a dress code amid debate in France over a ban in classrooms on long robes worn mainly by Muslims.

The ban on robes known as abayas for girls and women and khamis for boys and men went into effectn Monday.

Macron said he is in favor of “experimenting” with uniforms in order to “inform public debate,” speaking in a live interview on online media HugoDecrypte, broadcasted on Youtube and TikTok.

JERUSALEM, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons announced on Sunday that they would stage a hunger strike to protest a decision to cut the frequency of their family visits.

The hunger strike, which will start on Thursday, demands a reversal of the decision by Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to reduce family visits from once a month to once every two months, according to the Supreme Emergency Committee of the Prisoner National Movement.

HARARE, Sept 3 (NNN-IRIN) – Zimbabwe’s President-elect, Emmerson Mnangagwa, is set to be sworn in tomorrow, for his second term in office, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister, Monica Mutsvangwa, announced last night.

The inauguration ceremony will be held at the 60,000-seater National Sports Stadium in the capital Harare, Mutsvangwa announced, in a press release.

AMMAN, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Senior U.S. officials visited Syria's eastern oil-rich Deir al Zor province on Sunday in an attempt to defuse an uprising by Arab tribes against Kurdish rule that is destabilising northeast Syria, U.S. officials, security sources, and residents said.

NICOSIA, Sept. 4 (Xinhua) -- Cyprus, Greece and Israel agreed on Monday to intensify cooperation on an energy corridor from the Eastern Mediterranean to Europe, leaders of the three countries said after meeting in Nicosia.

"In light of the growing need for energy diversification and interconnectivity due to geopolitical developments, we reaffirmed the common interest to advance prospects for a reliable energy corridor from the Eastern Mediterranean basin to Europe," they said in a joint statement.

02 September 2023; MEMO: Russian President, Vladimir Putin, will hold talks with Turkish President, Tayyip Erdogan, on Monday in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, the Kremlin said on Friday, Reuters reports.

01 September 2023; MEMO: A headless bronze statue, believed to portray the Roman statesman, Marcus Aurelius, and suspected to have been looted from Turkiye, has been confiscated by US authorities in an Ohio museum, according to a report Thursday, Anadolu Agency reports.

01 September 2023; MEMO: Former Brazilian President, Jair Bolsonaro, and his wife, Michelle, chose to remain silent when they appeared before Federal Police on Thursday to testify in an investigation into jewellery gifts that they received from Arab heads of state and never declared, Reuters reports.