SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Friday it had test-fired a newly developed anti-aircraft missile in the fourth round of weapons firings in recent weeks, even as it pushes to reopen dormant communication channels with South Korea in a small reconciliation step. Earlier this week, North Korea leader Kim Jong Un expressed his willingness to restore communication hotlines with South Korea in coming days to promote peace on the Korean Peninsula. Some experts say North Korea wants South Korea to persuade the United States to ease punishing economic international sanctions on it. Other say North Korea aims to get an international recognition as a nuclear power. Earlier in September, North Korea also test-fired a new hypersonic missile, a newly developed cruise missile and a ballistic missile launched from a train.

Millions of internet addresses assigned to Africa have been waylaid, some fraudulently, including through insider machinations linked to a former top employee of the nonprofit that assigns the continent’s addresses. The internet service providers and others to whom AFRINIC assigns IP address blocks aren’t purchasing them. Africa has been allocated just 3% of the world’s first-generation IP addresses. Making things worse: the alleged theft of millions of AFRINIC IP addresses, involving the organization’s former No. He shook up management and began trying to reclaim wayward IP address blocks.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The UN Security Council voted unanimously on Thursday to extend the U.N. political mission in Libya until after the country’s critical presidential and parliamentary elections scheduled for late December. However, the UN’s most powerful body remained divided over the withdrawal of all mercenaries and foreign forces from the oil-rich North African nation and the mission’s leadership. The vote extended the current mission until Jan. 31 to ensure the United Nations can continue supporting Libya’s transitional government. Thursday’s vote postponed a Security Council statement on mercenaries and foreign fighters and Kubis’ base. In May 2020, the panel said Wagner provided between 800 and 1,200 mercenaries to support Hifter, the eastern Libyan commander.

Bahrain and Gulf neighbor United Arab Emirates normalized relations with Israel last year in a U.S.-brokered deal known as the Abraham Accords that built on common commercial interests and worries about Iran. Our threats are also shared, and they aren’t far from here,” Lapid said in remarks to reporters, apparently alluding to Gulf power Iran. The Sunni-ruled kingdom accuses Iran of stoking unrest in Bahrain, a charge that Tehran denies. On Thursday, Bahraini activists circulated on social media images of what appeared to be small protests in Bahrain. In Gaza, the Islamist Hamas group criticised Bahrain for hosting Lapid, who returns to Israel on Thursday evening.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli troops shot and killed a 40-year-old Palestinian man in the Gaza Strip on Thursday as he was setting bird traps near the Israeli border, his family said. The shooting came hours after two other Palestinians were killed in separate incidents in Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank. The shooting in Gaza occurred just before noon, near the Bureij refugee camp. The border area remains volatile and three Palestinians and an Israeli soldier have been killed in clashes in the area in recent weeks. Earlier Thursday, Israeli police shot a Palestinian woman who allegedly attempted to stab an officer in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Some 4 million people live in the northwest, 1.7 million of them in camps for those uprooted by the conflict. “The hospitals can no longer absorb this attack,” Fouad added, saying that younger people were being hit harder by this wave. This is the biggest spike we have seen since the beginning of the pandemic in northwest Syria. Vaccination campaigns have made slow progress more widely in Syria, where the overall population stands at around 18 million. At a Damascus hospital this week, medics in disposable gowns and face masks tended to patients hooked up to oxygen.

A Palestinian boy waits with his family for a travel permit to cross into Egypt through Rafah border crossing after it was opened by Egyptian authorities for humanitarian cases, in Gaza Strip 2017. REUTERSCAIRO - 11 October 2021: Egyptian authorities on Tuesday continued operating Rafah border crossing on both sides acting upon the directives of the political leadership to facilitate the transit of stranded Palestinians and the entry of aid and construction materials to the Gaza Strip. The crossing has been opened according to directives of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi since May 16, 2021. It is also part of the Egyptian commitment announced by Sisi to quickly improve the living conditions of the Gaza dwellers. And, on May 10-20, Israel shelled and carried out airstrikes against Gaza Strip.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose for the third straight week, a sign that the highly contagious delta variant may be slowing a recovery in the job market. Claims rose unexpectedly by 11,000 last week to 362,000, the Labor Department said Thursday, though economists had been expecting claims to go in the opposite direction. The four-week moving average of claims, which smooths out week-to-week ups and downs, rose for the first time in seven weeks to 340,000. “Overall, the jump in claims in the last three weeks bears close watching but is not yet alarming,″ Contingent said. Altogether, 2.8 million Americans were receiving some type of jobless aid the week of Sept. 18, down by 18,000 from the week before.

The Egyptian Meteorological Authority anticipates a continued drop in weather temperatures across the country. Hot weather is predicted over Greater Cairo, Lower Egypt, northern Upper Egypt, South Sinai and the south Upper Egypt, and moderate weather on the northern coasts. Winds will be active on areas of the western coasts and South Sinai at intermittent periods. Mist is predicted in the morning on some agricultural and highway roads close to water channels leading to and from Greater Cairo, Lower Egypt, the northern coasts and central Sinai. Maximum temperatures predicted Friday:Qena 25CAlexandria, Matrouh 27CGreater Cairo 31CSohag 34CAswan 36C

The US and Europe can greatly pressure Ethiopia in the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam issue, through the aid they provide to Addis Ababa, which amounts to three billion dollars annually and includes food commodities and infrastructure assistance, the Former Minister of Irrigation Mohamed Nasr Allam said on Wednesday. Allam added that Sisi assured Sullivan about the importance of water security for Egypt. Egypt warned that security and peace in the region is at risk if Ethiopia’s intransigence continues, Allam said. Sisi conveyed the scope of the issue to Sullivan, Allam added, while that the latter affirmed the US is fully commitmed to global security. He stressed that what links Egypt with Ethiopia is the 1902 agreement, adding that Addis Ababa’s main goal is to reduce Cairo’s share and affect its African standing.

Minister of Health Hala Zayed inspects Mercedes Benz mobile clinic vehicle in the company's headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany on September 29, 2021. Press PhotoCAIRO – 30 September 2021: Minister of Health and Population Hala Zayed met with the executives of Mercedes Benz in Germany's Stuttgart Wednesday agreeing on the supply of 2,510 ambulances and mobile clinic vehicles that will be part of Decent Life initiative. The deal worth LE3 billion consists of the delivery of 1,510 vehicles between October and mid-2022, while the rest would arrive starting 2023. The conference was held on the occasion of receiving 1.5 million AstraZeneca doses from Germany. As such, the total number of doses given by Germany to Egypt over the past week became 2.3 million.

DUBAI, Sept 30 (Reuters) – Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid flew to Bahrain on Thursday on the highest-level Israeli visit to the Gulf state since the countries established formal relations last year. He also held talks with his Bahraini counterpart and will inaugurate Israel’s embassy in Manama. “We see Bahrain as an important partner, on the bilateral level but also as a bridge to cooperate with other countries in the region,” an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson said. In Gaza, the Islamist Hamas group criticised Bahrain for hosting Lapid, who returns to Israel on Thursday evening. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said five memorandums of understanding will be signed, including cooperation agreements between hospitals and water and power companies.

Meeting of Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli and Brazilian Ambassador to Cairo Antonio Patriota in the Egyptian capital on September 29, 2021. Egypt Today/Sulaiman al-AtifyCAIRO – 30 September 2021: Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli discussed with Brazilian Ambassador to Cairo Antonio Patriota Wednesday launching a direct flight between the Egyptian and Brazilian capitals. Madbouli said that the flight will improve the mobility of tourists between Cairo and Sao Paolo as well as economic and trade ties. The prime minister noted that Brazil is the biggest trade partner of Egypt in Latin America given the size of trade exchange worth $1.3 billion per annum. On his side, the Brazilian ambassador showcased that trade ties with Egypt grew remarkably after Mercusor Agreement, which is a free trade one, went into force.

CAIRO – 16 September 2021: Egypt recorded Wednesday 738 COVID-19 infections, and 31 deaths as well as 809 recoveries at isolation hospitals. As such, the total figures became 303,783 infections, 17,294 deaths, and 256,467 recoveries. Minister of Health and Population Hala Zayed announced Wednesday that Egypt has received until now 4,424,400 doses of anti-Covid-19 vaccine from China's Sinopharm Group as part of the state's efforts to provide jabs against the pandemic. One million doses of the vaccine were received at Cairo International Airport Tuesday evening from the Chinese company along with 3,000 liters of raw material sufficient to produce 4.6 million doses, according to Assistant Health Minister and Health Ministry Spokesman Khaled Megahed. All vaccines that reach Egypt are approved by the World Health Organization and the Egyptian Drug Authority for emergency use, he said, stressing that all shipments are tested at the authority labs before distribution among the 1,100 vaccination centers across the country.

MITO, Japan (AP) — Fumio Kishida, the man soon to become Japan’s prime minister, says he believes raising incomes is the only way to get the world’s third-largest economy growing again. Topping Kishida’s to-do list is another big dose of government spending to help Japan recover from the COVID-19 shock. Analysts say Kishida, who is all-but-certain to be elected prime minister by Parliament on Monday, is unlikely to stray far from Abe’s playbook of heavy doses of stimulus. Neither did the current prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, who is stepping aside after one year in office. “They’re solvable but that needs a prime minister with a will to act, who has a strategy.”