MOGADISHU, Aug 22 (NNN-DAILYNEWS) — Somalia has announced a ban on social media platforms Tiktok and Telegram and the online betting platform 1XBet.

The government says these platforms are being used by “terrorists and groups responsible for spreading immorality… to spread graphic clips, photos and mislead society”.

It comes as Somalia announces an ambitious target to crush the al-Shabaab militant group, which still controls large swathes of the country, within the next five months.

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus police on Monday rescued 18 Syrian migrants after their boat started taking on water some 3.5 miles off the Mediterranean island nation’s southeastern coast.

Police said the 11 men, three unescorted minors, one woman and her three children had set sail from Tartus, Syria and were brought ashore aboard a police patrol vessel.

State-run Cyprus News Agency reported that the woman and her children were taken to the hospital after one of the kids had fainted. The migrants’ boat reportedly sank.

KYIV, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Ukraine lined up the burnt-out husks of Russian tanks and fighting vehicles along the capital Kyiv's central drag on Monday as Ukrainians prepare to mark their second wartime Independence Day this week.

The national holiday, which commemorates 32 years of post-Soviet independence from Moscow on Thursday, falls exactly 18 months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of its southern neighbour.

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — The son of longtime autocratic Cambodian leader Hun Sen was approved by Parliament on Tuesday as the country’s new prime minister, part of a generational change in top positions in the Southeast Asian nation.

Hun Manet, 45, won his first seat in the National Assembly in July elections and takes over from his father, who had been Asia’s longest serving leader with nearly four decades in power, after serving as Cambodia’s army chief.

He was approved by lawmakers unanimously and is to be officially sworn in later Tuesday.

JOHANNESBURG, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Leaders of the BRICS nations - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - converged on Johannesburg on Tuesday for a summit where they will weigh expanding the bloc as some members push to forge it into a counterweight to the West.

Heightened global tensions provoked by the Ukraine war and a growing rivalry between China and the United States have added urgency to a drive to strengthen the bloc, which has at times suffered from internal divisions and a lack of coherent vision.

ISLAMABAD, Aug 22 (APP): Pakistan on Tuesday summoned senior Indian diplomat to register a strong protest over the killing of a 60-year old civilian at the Line of Control, consequent to the firing by Indian forces.

The Indian Charge d’ Affaires was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs following the killing to 60-year-old civilian Ghias, resident of Oli village of Kotli district.

The incident took place in the Nikial Sector of the Line of Control (LoC) on August 21.

KHARTOUM, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- The fierce clashes between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continued on Monday around the strategic armored corps camp at Al-Shajara military area, south of the capital Khartoum.

"For the second day, the rebel militia attempted to enter the armored corps camp," Nabil Abdalla, the SAF's spokesman, said in a statement.

"Our forces repulsed the militia and inflicted heavy losses of lives and equipment on them," the statement said.

LUANDA, Aug 22 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) — Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel valued as fruitful the talks held with his Angolan counterpart, João Lourenço, in which he confirmed the feeling of friendship and mutual trust that distinguish bilateral ties.

The president ratified the willingness of both parties to continue expanding and consolidating these relations in areas of mutual interest, as well as reaffirmed the priority that the Caribbean nation gives to its ties with this country.

JERUSALEM (AP) — A suspected Palestinian attacker killed an Israeli woman and seriously wounded a man in the south of the occupied West Bank on Monday, Israeli authorities said, as violence flared in the restive territory two days after a shooting that killed two Israelis.

MEXICO CITY, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Monday publicly attacked a Reuters report published last week detailing how organized crime groups disguised drug profits as routine remittances to move money from the United States to Mexico.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Russia and China will look to gain more political and economic ground in the developing world at a summit in South Africa this week, when an expected joint dose of anti-West grumbling from them may take on a sharper edge with a formal move to bring Saudi Arabia closer.

ISTANBUL, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- Turkish anti-narcotics police seized nearly 450 kg of methamphetamine and arrested five suspects, including a foreigner, in Istanbul, the governor's office said in a statement on Monday.

The operation comes as part of a probe into the illicit trafficking of drugs, said the statement.

Upon a tip-off, the police began tracking the suspects allegedly involved in drug trafficking and stopped a car and two trucks in the Tuzla district, where 447.5 kg of liquid narcotics were found concealed in 20 drums, it added.