Reuters World News Summary

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Hong Kong hunkers down as super typhoon Saola approaches

Hong Kong braced for the arrival of super typhoon Saola on Friday as authorities raised the strong wind signal to No.8, bringing the city to an effective standstill with most businesses, schools and the stock exchange shut. Saola, packing winds of more than 200 kph (125 mph), is expected to move towards the coast of eastern Guangdong, the neighbouring province on the Chinese mainland. It could be among the five strongest typhoons to hit Guangdong since 1949, Chinese authorities said on Thursday as they issued their highest typhoon warning.

Florida's storm-tossed Gulf Coast takes stock as Idalia soaks Carolinas

Tropical Storm Idalia drenched the Carolinas on Thursday with torrential rain that threatened to trigger flash flooding, while officials in Florida, where the tempest made landfall as a major hurricane, stepped up recovery and damage-appraisal efforts. A day after plowing ashore at Keaton Beach in Florida's Big Bend region, packing Category 3 winds of nearly 125 miles per hour (201 kph), Idalia weakened from a tropical storm to a post-tropical cyclone and drifted away from shore into the Atlantic.

Over 40 killed in east Congo after crackdown on anti-UN protest

Over 40 people were killed and 56 wounded in an army crackdown on violent anti-United Nations demonstrations in eastern Congolese city of Goma on Wednesday, the government said. Congolese troops forcibly dispersed the protest against the U.N. peacekeeping mission and other foreign organisations after footage of an attack on a policeman circulated on social media. Reuters was unable to verify the footage.

Bolsonaro stays silent in police probe of undeclared Saudi, Bahrain jewelry gifts

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his wife Michelle chose to remain silent when they appeared before Federal Police on Thursday to testify in an investigation into jewelry gifts that they received from Arab heads of state and never declared. They were called to testify at Police headquarters in Brasilia, along with Bolsonaro's former aide-de-camp Mauro Cid, his father, a retired army general, and another military officer that was a presidential aide.

Trump pleads not guilty to Georgia election subversion, seeks separate trial

Former U.S. President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty on Thursday to a Georgia criminal indictment accusing him of trying to overturn his 2020 election defeat and asked to be tried separately from some of his 18 co-defendants. Fulton County indicted Trump in August on 13 felony counts, including racketeering, for pressuring state officials to reverse his 2020 election loss in the state and allegedly setting up a fake slate of electors to undermine the congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden's victory.

Blaze in run-down Johannesburg apartment block kills scores

More than 70 people were killed overnight when a fire raged through a run-down, five-storey Johannesburg apartment block, one of the worst such disasters in a city where poverty, household fires and homelessness are widespread. The building was gutted, blackened by soot and still smouldering on Thursday as emergency services gathered around it and bodies lay covered in blankets on a nearby street.

Ukraine tells critics of slow counteroffensive to 'shut up'

Ukraine told critics of the pace of its three-month-old counteroffensive to "shut up" on Thursday, the sharpest signal yet of Kyiv's frustration at leaks from Western officials who say its forces are advancing too slowly. Since launching a much vaunted counteroffensive using many billions of dollars of Western military equipment, Ukraine has recaptured more than a dozen villages but has yet to penetrate Russia's main defences.

UN chief sends Russia bid to revive Black Sea grain deal

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on Thursday that he had sent Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov "a set of concrete proposals" aimed at reviving a deal that allowed the safe export of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea. Russia quit the deal in July - a year after it was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey - complaining that its own food and fertilizer exports faced obstacles and that not enough Ukrainian grain was going to countries in need.

African Union suspends Gabon's membership after military coup

The African Union on Thursday suspended Gabon's membership one day after military officers ousted President Ali Bongo, the first regional response to the eighth coup in West and Central Africa since 2020. The takeover ends the Bongo family dynasty's almost six decades in power and creates a new conundrum for a region hit with a wave of coups that Nigerian President Bola Tinubu called a "contagion of autocracy".

Burkina Faso says leader discussed possible military cooperation with Russian delegation

A Russian delegation held talks with Burkina Faso's interim president Ibrahim Traore on Thursday at a meeting that included discussions on possible military cooperation, the Burkinabe presidency said in a statement. It said the visit, led by Russian Deputy Defence Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, was a follow-up to talks between Traore and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg in July.