India has abstained from UN resolutions censuring Moscow and continues to buy Russian oil from its "longstanding and time-tested friend" and biggest supplier of arms.

Khan had said on Sunday at a public rally in Islamabad that the opposition's no-confidence motion was the result of a "foreign conspiracy," but avoided naming a specific country, Kyodo News reported.

A day after officials from the two countries initialled a draft agreement on security, the office of Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare said on Friday the agreement does not invite China to establish a military base.

The South Asian nation of 22 million people is facing widespread shortages of essential goods and sharp price rises, weighed down by enormous debt.

Japan already has bans on trade and vessel entries as part of unilateral sanctions against Pyongyang, but said Friday it would "designate four groups and nine individuals involved in nuclear and missile development."

Trudeau said he had shared his view with Indonesian President Joko "Widodo" Widodo, who is hosting the meeting of major economies in November, that Putin's attendance would be "extraordinarily difficult for us and unproductive for the G20."

The United States and Britain released strongly-worded reports on Thursday detailing concerns about an erosion of freedoms in the global financial hub and the stifling of dissent in the city's legislature, civil society, and media.

The Bank of Japan's Tankan business survey -- a quarterly poll of about 10,000 companies -- showed a reading of plus 14 for major manufacturers, lower than the previous plus 17.

After a nearly six-year legal vacuum, Indonesia and Malaysia have agreed to resume a migrant labor agreement that improves on protections for Indonesian workers.

The Southeast Asian country has been in turmoil since a coup last year ousted Aung San Suu Kyi's administration and sparked mass democracy protests and a deadly crackdown.

"Officials of Solomon Islands and the People's Republic of China have initialled elements of a bilateral Security Cooperation Framework between the two countries today," said a statement from the prime minister's office in Honiara.

The percentage of teenage girls getting the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine has been close to zero since the country's 2013 decision not to promote the jab as panic erupted over alleged side effects.

The plea for patience came as the Chinese financial hub, home to 26 million people, said its overall daily COVID caseload eased, for the first time in about two weeks, in an outbreak that began about a month ago.

It will only be Lavrov's third visit overseas since Russia's Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, after a trip to Turkey for talks with his Ukrainian counterpart earlier this month and meetings in China starting on Wednesday.

"I bought the ticket just a week ago, but it was rather a no-brainer. It felt like I was making up for those two years not being able to go abroad often as I used to before COVID," he said, before boarding the plane from Incheon International Airport on Friday.

Moscow's top diplomat landed in the eastern city of Huangshan early Wednesday for a series of meetings about the future of Afghanistan.

Speaking at an American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan event late on Wednesday, Sandra Oudkirk, director of the American Institute in Taiwan which handles relations in the absence of formal diplomatic ties, said managing US differences with China faces "distinct challenges".

The Group of 20 concluded its first Health Working Group (HWG) meeting on Wednesday with a unanimous agreement on the mutual recognition of digital COVID-19 vaccine certificates, along with a digital verification portal.

Interfax said cooperation included building up foreign policy coordination and speaking with one voice on global affairs.

No prime minister in the country's history has seen out a full term, and Khan is facing the biggest challenge to his rule since being elected in 2018, with opponents accusing him of economic mismanagement and foreign-policy bungling.

Around 300 volunteer Ukrainian translators, with some also based overseas, are relaying key events from Russia's war on their homeland into Chinese.

In a summary of the classified documents, the US department characterized China as the country's "most consequential strategic competitor," and its assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific region should be tackled by strengthening defense cooperation with its allies.

But Sayi knew she would not be able to stay in the same spot for long due to the shaky mobile internet connection she relied on for her education as classes in Dunge village and across India moved online when COVID-19 struck in March 2020.

The financial hub of Shanghai, home to 26 million people, is in its third day of lockdown authorities are imposing by dividing the city roughly along the Huangpu River, splitting the historic center from the eastern financial and industrial district of Pudong to allow for staggered testing.

Several towns in northern New South Wales already reeling after record floods over a month ago were pounded by an intense low-pressure system overnight. Some regions took a month's rainfall in under six hours, officials said.

Hosting Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong in the Oval Office, Biden said the world's "rules-based order" faces "unprecedented challenges," but that Washington has not been distracted by the Ukraine war.

Torrential rain that began Monday proved unrelenting, with more than 250 millimeters (9.8 inches) falling in the area in 24 hours, forcing many shops in the Byron Bay town center to close as roads were cut off by rising water levels.

With an election expected in May, and Prime Minister Scott Morrison's party trailing Labor heavily in the polls, his government announced a budget that cuts fuel duty in half and promises Aus$8.6 billion (US$6.4 billion) in tax rebates. 

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will meet Biden in the Oval Office at 10:35 am (1435 GMT), and the two leaders will later make a joint media appearance.

Multiple evacuation orders were issued for the town of Lismore, which was devastated last month when record-high 14.3-meter (47 feet) floodwaters engulfed homes, swept away cars, and stranded locals on the roofs of their homes.