The first high-speed railway in Southeast Asia, Nobel Prize in Medicine has a new owner, EU signal to Ukraine

The World & Vietnam Newspaper highlights some notable world news this morning, October 3.

Asia

KOMPAS. Indonesia officially launched a high-speed railway connecting the capital Jakarta to the city of Bandung - the first high-speed railway in Southeast Asia.

The high-speed railway project has a total investment of 7.3 billion USD and a total length of 142 km, with a maximum speed of 350 km/h. (Source: Xinhua)

MANILA TIMES. Forces from the Philippines, Britain, Canada, Japan and the United States kicked off an annual joint naval exercise called Samasama off the capital Manila and southern Luzon island.

BANGKOK POST. Thailand is expected to conclude FTAs with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), Sri Lanka and the UAE in the second and third quarters of 2024, which will boost trade flows to $31 billion per year.

ANKARA. Indonesia's health ministry has urged port authorities and health facilities to be on high alert for the Nipah virus (NiV), as the virus has caused a small but deadly outbreak in India.

REUTERS. The World Food Programme (WFP) in Afghanistan said more than 1 million mothers and children in the southwest Asian country are no longer receiving nutrition support due to a major lack of financial resources.

DHAKA TRIBUNE. Since the beginning of the year, Bangladesh has recorded more than 1,000 deaths due to dengue fever, and this is considered the most serious outbreak of this mosquito-borne disease ever.

TASNIM. Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has agreed to pardon and commute the sentences of 2,284 prisoners serving sentences, following a request by Chief Justice Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei.

AL JAZEERA. UAE President Mohammed bin Zayed arrives in Qatar to attend the opening ceremony of the Doha Expo 2023.

Europe

AL JAZEERA. The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) has claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on a government building in the Turkish capital Ankara that left two police officers injured.

ANADOLU. Turkey will resume operations of its crude oil pipeline from Iraq , which has been suspended for about six months, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said.

DW. The EU sent a signal of its long-term support for Ukraine, as the bloc's foreign ministers met for the first time in the capital Kiev.

REUTERS. Denmark will contribute 100 million Danish krone ( $14.1 million ) to a joint European order for ammunition under an EU plan to support Ukraine.

HELSINKI TIMES. The Finnish Border Guard Agency (FBG) has launched a world-first system that allows travellers from Helsinki to the UK to use smartphone identification instead of a paper passport.

FRANCE 24. France becomes the first country in the EU to launch a bird flu vaccination campaign, first on domestic ducks.

BBC. UK Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has rejected suggestions from Trade Minister Kemi Badenoch that withdrawing from the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) is necessary to better tackle illegal immigration.

TASS. The State Duma (lower house of parliament) of Russia spent more than 52 million rubles ($536,000) to buy domestic software to equip parliamentarians and parliamentary staff to work, replacing the Windows operating system and Microsoft Office software suite.

AFP. The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, announced that the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine went to two scientists, Katalin Kariko (Hungary) and Drew Weissman (USA).

Both scientists are pioneers who have made important contributions to the development of mRNA technology. (Source: Penn Medicine)

America

CNN. Hard-line Republican Representative Matt Gaetz said he will file a "motion to remove" to call for a vote to remove House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

AFP. The United States has strongly condemned the seizure of documents by Guatemalan prosecutors from the country's electoral court, saying it "undermines" the peaceful transfer of power after the presidential election.

RIO NEWS. More than 100 dolphins have died in Brazil's Amazon River amid record water temperatures - more than 39 degrees Celsius - and a prolonged drought in the region.

AP. The Panama Canal continues to reduce the number of ships allowed to pass through the canal each day from 32 to 31 due to the prolonged severe drought.

CNN. Ecuadorian presidential candidate Daniel Noboa believes that given its position on the international stage, the country needs to become a bridge to bring peace between Russia and Ukraine.

Africa

REUTERS. The Algerian Foreign Ministry confirmed that Algiers had received an official notification from Niger about Niamey accepting the reconciliation initiative of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

AHRAM. At least 38 people were injured in a major fire that broke out at a police headquarters in the Egyptian city of Ismailia.

The Egyptian Ministry of Health dispatched 50 ambulances to the scene of the fire, while two military aircraft came to the rescue. (Source: AFP)

AFP. The Malian army has begun redeploying troops towards the rebel stronghold of Kidal in the north, amid renewed hostilities in the area.

AFRICA NEWS. Algeria's national literacy strategy has helped more than 3.64 million people become literate since 2008, of which women account for 88.97%.

Oceania

ABC. Victorian authorities have issued a series of bushfire warnings after major fires broke out and destroyed a residential area in the state's east.

SMH. House prices in Australia are expected to continue to rise in most major cities and could set new records, amid what appears to be peak interest rates, continued population growth and a shortage of new homes.

SBS. September 2023 was Australia's driest month on record since observations began in 1900, according to the Australian Bureau of Meteorology (BOM).

NZ HERALD. New Zealanders have begun early voting to elect a new government ahead of the official election on October 14.

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