MOSCOW, August 22. /TASS/: The world situation has become more complicated due to the destructive stance of the West, thus making the role of inter-party diplomacy increasingly significant, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said to the organizers and participants of the International Congress of Members of the Youth Wings of Political Parties.

TOKYO (AP) — North Korea told Japan on Tuesday it plans to launch a satellite in the coming days, possibly a second try to put a military spy satellite into orbit three months after its first effort failed, Japanese officials said.

In late May, a North Korean rocket carrying a spy satellite plunged into the sea soon after liftoff, posing a setback to leader Kim Jong Un’s push to establish a space-based surveillance system to better monitor the U.S. and South Korea. North Korea had vowed to make a second attempt after studying what went wrong with the first launch.

OTTAWA, Aug 21 (Reuters) - The Canadian government, under pressure over the rising cost of housing, could consider capping foreign student visas, which have rocketed in recent years, new Housing Minister Sean Fraser said on Monday.

Official data show there were more than 800,000 foreign students with active visas in 2022, up from 275,000 in 2012. Canada is a popular destination for international students since it is relatively easy to obtain a work permit.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Dubai International Airport, the world’s busiest for international travel, announced Tuesday it served 41.6 million passengers in the first half of this year — exceeding figures for the same period in 2019 as travelers return to the air after the lockdowns of the coronavirus pandemic.

BANGKOK, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Real estate mogul Srettha Thavisin won the backing of Thailand's parliament on Tuesday to become prime minister, paving the way to a new coalition government and an end to weeks of uncertainty and political stalemate.

Srettha, who was thrust into the spotlight just a few months ago by the populist Pheu Thai Party, secured the support of more than half of the legislature, on a day when the party's billionaire figurehead Thaksin Shinawatra made a historic homecoming after years of as a fugitive in self-imposed exile.

TRIPOLI, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) -- Libyan Interior Minister Emad al-Tarabelsi announced Monday that 486 illegal migrants have been deported to their countries of origin.

In a press conference following the announcement, the minister said that 294 of them are from Egypt, while the others from different African countries.

Al-Tarabelsi said that the deportees include those recently left stranded near the Tunisian border after being expelled by Tunisian authorities.

BEIJING, August 22. /TASS/:  The decision by the Japanese authorities to discharge water from the Fukushima-1 emergency nuclear power plant into the sea is a mistake, and China will be forced to take all necessary retaliatory measures, the country’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said.

"China strongly insists that Japan should rectify this wrong decision and abandon its plan to discharge radioactive water into the sea," he told a regular briefing, "The Chinese side will take all necessary measures to protect marine ecology, safeguard food safety and public health."

CAPE TOWN, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- At 6:30 a.m. every morning in De Aar, a small town more than 750 km northeast of Cape Town, the legislative capital of South Africa, Deswin Basson would stand at the door of his house in the cold wind, waiting for his colleagues to pick him up and drive him to work at a substation more than 20 km away.

Although getting up so early is not always fun, the 27-year-old local is full of enthusiasm every day. Deswin works at the substation of Longyuan South Africa Renewables (Pty) Ltd.'s (Longyuan SA) De Aar Wind Power Project.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal indictment and one in Georgia charging Donald Trump with lying about the 2020 election to overturn President Joe Biden’s win have done nothing to slow the geyser of election falsehoods flowing from the former president and his supporters.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — When Republican candidates for president gather for their first debate Wednesday in Milwaukee, the spotlight will not only be on them but also on Wisconsin’s role as one of a shrinking handful of genuine battleground states.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tropical Storm Hilary drenched Southern California from the coast to the desert resort city of Palm Springs and inland mountains, forcing rescuers to pull several people from swollen rivers.

By early Monday, remnants of the storm that first brought soaking rains to Mexico’s arid Baja California peninsula and the border city of Tijuana, threatened Nevada and as far north as Oregon and Idaho with flooding.

Southern Californians were battling flooded roads, mudslides and downed trees.

GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador (AP) — Ecuadorian voters looking for a new leader to help curb the country’s unprecedented violence will have to head to the polls again in October for a runoff that is likely to see the ally of a convicted former president vie against the principal heir of a banana growing and exporting empire.