RIGA (Reuters) - Davy Klaassen scored the only goal as the Netherlands beat Latvia 1-0 away in Riga on Friday to keep themselves ahead in a tightly contest World Cup qualifying group. Klaassen was unmarked at the back post to tuck away Memphis Depay's corner after 19 minutes for the lone goal of the game, although the Dutch did dominate with almost relentless attacks in the closing 20 minutes and might have won by a larger margin. The Netherlands advanced to 16 points in Group G, two ahead of Norway and four in front of third placed Turkey after those two countries drew 1-1 in Istanbul at the same time. It was a third win in four games for the Dutch since Louis van Gaal returned as coach and they are expected to move closer to World Cup qualification when they host Gibraltar in Rotterdam on Tuesday. Latvia remained on five points with a single win from their seven qualifying group games.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Firefighters and numerous studies credit intensive forest thinning projects with helping save communities like those recently threatened near Lake Tahoe in California and Nevada, but dissent from some environmental advocacy groups is roiling the scientific community. Forest managers credit such burns with helping protect the Giant Forest in Sequoia National Park. While most scientific studies find such forest management is a valuable tool, environmental advocates say data from recent gigantic wildfires support their long-running assertion that efforts to slow wildfires have instead accelerated their spread. Critics say forest thinning operations are essentially logging projects in disguise. Forest managers cite examples like where a 400-foot-wide (120-meter) fuel break helped protect rural Sierra Nevada homes.

CAIRO – 8 October 2021: Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El Sisi inspected on Friday the development works at the Umm Qamar intersection that links the Cairo-Ismailia desert road with the Cairo-Suez highway. The three-lane junction would serve heavy trucks that carry raw materials extracted from the quarries in that region to the industrial and investment zones in Cairo and other cities, which in turn could support the country's development process, said Presidential Spokesman Bassam Rady. The president also inspected a bridge passing over the intersection of Umm Qamar with Katameya/ Ain Sokhna Road, the spokesman added. Sisi chatted with officials at the work sites over details of the construction works and expressed his appreciation for all their strenuous efforts to set up such vital axis

An employee shows the Moderna coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at Northwell Health's Long Island Jewish Valley Stream hospital in New York, U.S., December 21, 2020. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/File PhotoCAIRO - 9 October 2021: The Health Ministry said Friday night that 811 new coronavirus cases were detected, upping the total number of confirmed infections since the outbreak in the country began to 310,745. In a statement, Spokesman for the Health Ministry Khaled Megahed said 35 patients have died from the virus over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 17,619. “Egyptian vaccination certificates are now recognized in the UK for those wishing to travel from Egypt,” announced the British Ambassador to Egypt Gareth Bayley on Friday. The travelers should be vaccinated with (AztraZenca, Modern, Pfizer, or Johnson) fourteen days before their arrivals in the UK, he continued.

BEIRUT (AP) — Iran’s foreign minister said Friday that more talks with regional archrival Saudi Arabia are needed for Tehran and Riyadh to improve ties but that negotiations so far have been heading in the right direction. The comments by Iran’s top diplomat, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, came on the last day of his two-day visit to Lebanon. “We consider the ongoing dialogue constructive, and we hope that it serves both countries’ interests.”The first direct talks between regional rivals Iran and Saudi Arabia took place in early April and were credited with reducing a highly hostile public discourse between the two. Iran and Saudi Arabia — a Shiite and a Sunni powerhouse in the Middle East — have long been regional rivals. Relations took a sharp turn when Riyadh removed its diplomats after protesters attacked its embassy in Tehran and consulate in Mashhad in 2016.

The Egyptian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Thursday condemning Israel’s decision to grant Jews the right to pray in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque. They called it a violation of Islamic sanctities and of the Al-Aqsa Mosque as a place of worship purely for Muslims. The Foreign Ministry reiterated that the historical and legal status of Jerusalem’s Islamic and Christian holy sites must be respected, in line with international legitimacy resolutions issued by the UN and the UNESCO. The ministry expressed deep concern about the consequences of the decision and its repercussions on security and stability in the region. It called on the Israeli government not to take any measures that would put the decision into effect or prejudice the status quo of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Ministry of Petroleum and Mineral Resources in Egypt announced an increase in the prices of gasoline and diesel by 25 piasters, as of Friday, October 8. The new prices will be applicable for the sale of all three types of gasoline products. According to the new amendment, the price of octane-80 fuel is now LE7 per liter, 92-octane fuel is LE8.25 per liter, and 95-octane fuel is LE9.25 per liter. The price of diesel fuel was set at seven LE per liter. A cubic meter of compressed natural gas used as fuel for cars at the fuel stations was set at LE3.75.

CAIRO – 8 October 2021: Egypt’s Fuel Automatic Pricing Committee decided Friday to increase the prices of fuel in the local market by 25 piastres per liter, the Ministry of Petroleum announced. Egypt earlier increased gasoline prices by 25 piasters per liter two times this year, the latest of which was on 23 July. The new prices as per Friday’s hike are LE 7 for 80 octane gasoline up from LE 6.75, LE 8.25 for 92 octane gasoline up from LE 8, and LE 9.25 for 95 octane gasoline, compared to LE 9. The Fuel Automatic Pricing Committee is formed from representatives of the finance and petroleum ministries and is assigned with reviewing gasoline prices in Egypt every three months. The latest time Egypt decreased gasoline prices was in April 2020 by 25 piasters per liter.

SEOUL, Oct 8 (Reuters) – North Korea’s food situation remains perilous according to analysts and a United Nations expert who raised doubts this week about its harvest, and there are signs that it is receiving large shipments of humanitarian aid from China. Health and nutrition supplies from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and medical supplies to support anti-pandemic work from the World Health Organisation were among the aid that had reached North Korea. “North Korea has been letting other goods into the country since May, including large volumes of what appears to be humanitarian assistance from China,” he said. O’Carroll said he thinks North Korea will still be able to stave off major food shortages through the aid and imports from China. “However, the quality, range and nutritional value of the food supplies on offer will be low,” he added.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly all Americans agree that the rampant spread of misinformation is a problem. Ninety-five percent of Americans identified misinformation as a problem when they’re trying to access important information. Yet only 2 in 10 Americans say they’re very concerned that they have personally spread misinformation. There’s more bipartisan agreement, however, about the role that social media companies, including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, play in the spread of misinformation. The poll also revealed that Americans are willing to blame just about everybody but themselves for spreading misinformation, with 53% of them saying they’re not concerned that they’ve spread misinformation.

The Palestinians and human rights groups view the practice of holding bodies as a form of collective punishment that inflicts further suffering on bereaved families. The Jerusalem Legal Aid and Human Rights Center, a Palestinian rights group, says Israel is holding the bodies of at least 82 Palestinians since the policy was established in 2015. Hamas holds the remains of the two Israeli soldiers killed during the 2014 Gaza war in an undisclosed location. Security camera footage shows the car veering into a group of Israeli soldiers and sending one of them flying back. In 2011, it traded more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for an Israeli soldier who had been captured by Palestinian militants five years earlier and was being held in Gaza.

A former moderate who recently turned hawk on security issues, he said Japan should also increase preparedness for growing regional threats. He said the security environment has become more severe, and that he would revise Japan’s national security and defense strategy to bolster missile defense capability and naval defense. North Korea’s missile and nuclear development cannot be tolerated, but Japan seeks to normalize diplomatic ties with Pyongyang by resolving the “unfortunate (wartime) past,” and the decades-old issue of Japanese citizens abducted to the North, Kishida said. Kishida repeated that he is ready to meet North Korean leader Kim Jong Un toward making a breakthrough. Kishida said he hopes to close divisions caused by the pandemic that has worsened gaps between the rich and the poor.

TURIN, Italy: World champions France recovered from two goals down to beat Belgium 3-2 in a thrilling Nations League semi-final on Thursday (Oct 7) with a last-minute strike from Theo Hernandez securing a place in Sunday's showpiece match against Spain. In a crazy end to the game, Belgium thought they had won the pulsating contest minutes earlier but Romelu Lukaku's late effort was ruled out for offside by VAR. We sat back a little too much," said France coach Didier Deschamps. "They had a good period for 20 minutes but after that we were not in danger and had a lot of chances. "In the second half, we were a little too emotional - maybe we were thinking a little too much about the final, about qualifying.

CAIRO – 7 October 2021: Egypt’s Foreign Ministry, condemned, Thursday Houthi militia's attack that targeted Abha International Airport with a booby-trapped drone which was intercepted by the Arab Coalition after leaving some innocent people injured. The Foreign Ministry expressed in a statement, Egypt’s full support for Saudi Arabia in its efforts for confronting the repeated outrageous Houthi attacks targeting the kingdom in violation of international law and threat to regional security and stability. Egypt reiterated its full solidarity with Saudi Arabia, as well as backing for all measures adopted by the authorities in the kingdom to defend its stability and the safety of citizens and residents, the statement read. Maqdeshi delivered the greetings of Yemeni President Abdel Rabo Mansour Hady valuing cooperation ties between Egypt and Yemen in all sectors, particularly the military and security ones. The minister added that his country looks forward to continuous support by Egypt for political endeavors targeted at containing the situation in Yemen and ending its humanitarian crisis.

HONG KONG, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Japan's hopes of World Cup qualification suffered a major blow on Thursday as a 1-0 loss to Saudi Arabia ramped up the pressure on coach Hajime Moriyasu while Australia set a new record with victory over Oman. Australia remained in pole position in Group B and were joined on nine points by Saudi Arabia after they piled further pressure on six-times World Cup qualifiers Japan. Only the top two teams in each of Asia's two qualifying groups are guaranteed to advance to the World Cup, with the third-placed finishers moving into a series of playoffs. Wu guided Wang Shenchao's cross home from close range deep into added time, however, to give Li Tie's team their first victory after losses to Australia and Japan. The Lebanese drew 0-0 with Iraq, who are in fifth, while the Syrians prop up the standings with a point.