During the upcoming meeting at the White House, the leaders, including outgoing Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, will seek to advance cooperation in such areas as combating the coronavirus pandemic.

Japan's navy on Friday morning identified a submerged vessel sailing northwest just outside territorial waters near Amami Oshima island, part of Kagoshima prefecture, the ministry said in a statement. A Chinese destroyer was also spotted in the vicinity.

The virus situation in the city of Putian is "serious and complex" and it is very likely more new cases will emerge in communities, schools and factories, state broadcaster CCTV said on Monday.

Speaking before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Michelle Bachelet said she was "dismayed by the lack of inclusivity of the so-called caretaker cabinet, which includes no women and few non-Pashtuns."

Kabul airport was left trashed after foreign forces completed their chaotic withdrawal on August 30, evacuating more than 120,000 people from the country.

According to opinion polls, a clear majority is emerging to unseat Prime Minister Erna Solberg's centre-right government, which has ruled the Nordic country for the last eight years. 

The missiles newly developed by the Academy of Defense Science traveled for about two hours and six minutes above the territorial land and waters of North Korea, hitting targets 1,500 kilometers away on Saturday and Sunday, according to KCNA.

Johnson, under fire from some in his governing Conservative Party for raising taxes to fix a health and social care crisis, looks set to try to soothe those critics by ditching plans to introduce passports despite an increasing number of coronavirus cases.

The number of new daily cases around the world decreased by eight percent this week to 589,900, according to an AFP tally to Thursday.

"We have seen growing evidence that the dangers to our country can come, not only across borders, but from violence that gathers within," Bush said. "There is little cultural overlaps between violent extremists abroad and violent extremists at home ... they are children of the same foul spirit, and it is our continuing duty to confront them."

Several hundred people gathered near the Farrah Funeral Home in Lawrence, Mass., where Rosario's remains arrived in a black hearse with a police motorcycle escort. Marines in dress uniform carried the casket into the funeral home, as veterans in the crowd, some of whom had not worn a uniform in years, snapped to attention.

During the call, Biden's message was that the United States wants to ensure "the dynamic remains competitive and that we don't have any situation in the future where we veer into unintended conflict," a senior US administration official told reporters.

A whole generation has grown up since the morning of September 11, 2001.

Foreign and defense ministers of Indonesia and Australia met for their first in-person meeting since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, seeking to deepen their security links amid an increasingly contested Indo-Pacific environment.

Women can drive and cinemas have reopened in the "new" Saudi Arabia under crown prince and de facto ruler Mohammed bin Salman, among many modernising reforms that some believe can be linked to the trauma of 9/11.

The decision was revealed at a meeting between Chinese authorities and industry giants Tencent Holdings Ltd and NetEase Inc, the report said, adding that it was not clear until when the suspension would last.

In early August, the WHO director general had called for the suspension of the COVID-19 booster shots until the end of this month. But now he is seeking to extend the timeline for offering third shots, as the disparity in vaccine access for poorer countries has yet to be overcome.

The IAEA released a strongly-worded report Tuesday saying monitoring tasks in Iran have been "seriously undermined" after Tehran suspended some of the UN agency's inspections of its nuclear activities.

Its US embassy said in a statement that "any allegation that Saudi Arabia is complicit in the September 11 attacks is categorically false".

The 18 - six each on the Board of Visitors to the Air Force Academy, the Military Academy and the Naval Academy - were asked to resign, the White House said.

Beijing has said that the Taliban, an Islamist group that returned to power last month after being ousted by US-led forces in 2001, should set up a political structure that lays the foundation for lasting peace in Afghanistan.

A State Department spokesperson said in a statement on Tuesday that the US government reiterated “its clear expectation that the Taliban ensure that Afghan soil is not used to threaten any other countries and allow humanitarian access in support of the Afghan people."

Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, who served as deputy prime minister in the previous Taliban-ruled government through 2001, will lead the new government as prime minister, while Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader of the Haqqani Network, a militant group labeled by the United States as a terrorist group, was named as acting interior minister.

Takaichi has the backing of former prime minister Shinzo Abe, local media said, and would base her challenge on policies to fend off China's technology threat and help strengthen an economy battered by the coronavirus pandemic.

Rising cases, unequal global vaccine rollout and stringent quarantine requirements for some 60 "red list" nations and territories hoping to attend the 12-day UN climate talks mean that "a safe, inclusive and just global climate conference is impossible," the Climate Action Network (CAN) said.

But senior officials in the former Afghan administration told AFP that the lightning victory was not entirely unexpected, and the consequence of fundamental leadership failures, rampant corruption, slick Taliban propaganda -- and a crushing "betrayal" by US-led forces with their hasty pullout.

The top officials from President Joe Biden's security team began a meeting at the foreign ministry with their counterparts after a dinner on arrival Monday with Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.

When Reuters visited the hospital on Friday, its last coronavirus patient was readying to leave after recovery - a remarkable turnaround health experts attribute to growing levels of immunity from natural infection and vaccinations.

What happens in universities and schools across the country will be closely watched by foreign powers for signs of what rights women will have now the Islamist militant movement is back in charge.

The South American country has already approved the use of the Pfizer Inc/BioNTech vaccine for children over 12, with 654,053 receiving at least one dose since May.