Philippines, Marcos imposes cap on rice prices.

Today's news: Augst registers record sales of Chinese stocks by foreign investors; India considers bringing forward 2024 elections with an Election Day; UN Security Council extends UNIFIL mandate in Lebanon; Teenagers also among perpetrators of explosive attacks on barracks in Russia.

PHILIPPINES

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has imposed a nationwide rice price cap following what he called the "alarming increase in the retail price" of the national diet staple to more than 60 pesos per kilogram. Marcos, who kept the Agriculture Department delegation to himself, set price caps at 41 pesos per kilo for plain milled rice and 45 pesos per kilo for more refined rice.

CHINA

Foreign investors sold Chinese stocks for a record billion in August. This is a sign of distrust of the economic measures adopted by Beijing which have failed to appease worries about the slowdown in growth in China and the worsening crisis in the country's real estate sector.

INDIA

The Indian government has set up a committee led by former President Ram Nath Kovind to explore the feasibility of an Election Day, opening up the possibility of bringing forward the parliamentary elections - scheduled for spring 2024 - so that they can be held together with those of a series of legislative assemblies of individual states whose mandate expires at the beginning of the year. Until 1967 in India the two electoral rounds already took place simultaneously.

MYANMAR

A fresh appeal presented by Aung San Suu Kyi's lawyers was rejected by the Supreme Court of the military junta. The decision comes a month after a partial pardon that reduced his full prison sentence from 33 to 27 years. The whereabouts of the 78-year-old former leader of the National League for Democracy also remain unclear. Since January, the military has prevented her lawyers from meeting her and for more than two and a half years she has not been able to meet her son.

LEBANON

The United Nations Security Council has extended the mandate of UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, just hours before its expiry. 13 member countries voted in favour, China and Russia abstained. The resolution approved by the Security Council calls for the Lebanese army and Hezbollah to stop blocking the movements of the UN peacekeeping force and guarantee its freedom to operate, "including by allowing announced and unannounced patrols".

RUSSIA

Among the diversinty who carry out attacks in Russia against the mobilization barracks there are an increasing number of adolescents and very young people, three in the last few days alone. A sixteen year old in Krasnojarsk in Siberia was found in his pocket fuses and chemical materials for explosions, as told by the activist and lawyer Valeria Vetoshkina. They are accused of "collaboration with Ukrainian services" and "activities inspired by neo-Nazi ideology".

KYRGYZSTAN-PALESTINE

Palestine has officially opened its embassy in Tajikistan (so far it was represented by the diplomatic representative in Uzbekistan). The ceremony took place in the presence of the foreign minister and expatriates of Ramallah, Riad Al-Maliki, together with Dušanbe's counterpart Sirodžiddin Mukhriddin, who congratulated the "growth of friendship between our countries".

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