PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — China’s foreign minister visited Cambodia over the weekend to reaffirm his country’s commitment to the southeast Asian country after its incumbent prime minister handed off the job to his son following a one-sided election last month, officials said.

Wang Yi is the first foreign leader to visit Cambodia, days after Hun Sen’s announcement that his 45-year-old son and the country’s army chief, Hun Manet, is replacing him.

A video of the meeting was posted on Hun Sen’s Telegram channel on Sunday.

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 13 (NNN-SABA) – The United Nations welcomed the release of five of its security personnel, who were kidnapped in Yemen on Feb 11, 2022.

UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, was delighted to learn of the release, his deputy spokesman, Farhan Haq said, adding that, “available information suggests that all five colleagues are in good health.”

The UN chief was profoundly relieved that their ordeal and the anxiety of their families and friends have finally come to an end, Haq said in a statement.

Aug 13 (Reuters) - Britain's defence ministry said on Sunday there was a realistic possibility that Russia no longer funds the activities of the mercenary Wagner Group.

The defence ministry said in a daily bulletin the Russian state has acted against some other business interests of Wagner owner Yevgeny Prigozhin after he led a failed mutiny against the Russian army's top brass in June.

"If the Russian state no longer pays Wagner, the second most plausible paymasters are the Belarusian authorities," it said, adding that this would be a drain on Belarus' resources.

BEIJING, Aug.13 (APP): The purpose of the terrorist attack in Gwadar is no different from the previous terror attacks against Chinese personnel, mainly because it wants to impact China-Pakistan cooperation, especially the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), Qian Feng, Director of the Research department at the National Strategy Institute at Tsinghua University said on Sunday.

TEHRAN, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- A total of 733 people have sought medical treatment due to health problems caused by severe sandstorms in the southeastern Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchestan since Thursday, the official news agency IRNA reported on Sunday.

Majid Mohebi, head of the province's Disaster Mitigation and Management Organization said that respiratory, heart and eye problems were the most common conditions reported by the patients, of whom 58 have been hospitalized.

MOSCOW, August 13. /TASS/: Artillery units of Russia’s Battlegroup East have destroyed a pontoon crossing Ukrainian troops were trying to build across the River Mokrye Yaly near the settlement of Urozhainoye, the battlegroup’s spokesman Oleg Chekhov said on Sunday.

BEIJING (AP) — The death toll from a mudslide triggered by heavy rain on the outskirts of the western Chinese city of Xi’an rose to 21 on Sunday and rescuers were still looking for six missing people, the government said.

The mudslide and a flash flood Friday evening also damaged a highway and knocked out power to 900 households, the Xi’an Emergency Management Bureau said on its social media account. It said rescue teams totaling 980 people with dogs were looking for the remaining missing people.

DAMASCUS, Aug 13 (NNN-SANA) – Syria yesterday blamed the United States, for the deadly attack that was carried out by the Daesh against a Syrian military bus, which resulted in the killing of at least 33 soldiers on Friday.

In a statement released last night, the Syrian Foreign Ministry viewed the attack as part of the ongoing American campaign, against Syria’s sovereignty and independence, accusing the United States of supporting the Daesh to destabilise Syria.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s ruling party wants to ask voters in a referendum whether they support accepting “thousands of illegal immigrants from the Middle East and Africa” as part of a European Union relocation plan, the prime minister said Sunday, as his conservative party seeks to hold onto power in an October parliamentary election.

Mateusz Morawiecki announced the referendum question in a new video published on social media. It indicated that his party, Law and Justice, is seeking to use migration in its election campaign, a tactic that helped it take power in 2015.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Western-backed maritime forces in the Middle East on Saturday warned shippers traveling through the strategic Strait of Hormuz to stay as far away from Iranian territorial waters as possible to avoid being seized, a stark advisory amid heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S.

A similar warning went out to shippers earlier this year ahead of Iran seizing two tankers traveling near the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of the world’s oil passes.

12 August 2023; MEMO: The Israeli Air Force chief, on Friday, warned that reservist pilots protesting controversial plans to overhaul the judiciary are hurting the Force's readiness, Anadolu Agency reports.

Speaking to dozens of reservist pilots who say they will not show up for volunteer duty to protest the government's plans to overhaul the judiciary, Major- General Tomer Bar told them the readiness of the Force is "worsening", The Times of Israel daily reported.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon is developing plans to restructure the National Guard in Washington, D.C., in a move to address problems highlighted by the chaotic response to the Jan. 6 riot and safety breaches during the 2020 protests over the murder of George Floyd, The Associated Press has learned.