SEOUL, Sept 28 (Reuters) - North Korea fired two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast on Wednesday, South Korea's military said, a day before U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is set to arrive in Seoul.

The launch came two days after South Korea and U.S. forces conducted a military drill in waters off the South's east coast involving an aircraft carrier. On Sunday, North Korea fired another ballistic missile towards the sea off its east coast.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia was poised Wednesday to formally annex parts of Ukraine where occupied areas held a Kremlin-orchestrated “referendum” — denounced by Kyiv and the West as illegal and rigged — on living under Moscow’s rule.

Armed troops had gone door-to-door with election officials to collect ballots in five days of voting. The results were widely ridiculed as implausible and characterized as a land grab by an increasingly cornered Russian leadership following embarrassing military losses in Ukraine.

MOSCOW, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday called it "stupid and absurd" to allege that Russia was involved in leaks in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines.

"Is this in our interests? No, we will lose gas supply routes to Europe. Is it in Europe's interests? No, it is also in a very difficult situation," Peskov told a daily briefing.

MOSCOW, September 28. /TASS/: US President Joe Biden should issue a reply as to whether the United States had carried out its threat over the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.

27 Sep 2022; MEMO: Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Hajj and Umrah launched a new online platform yesterday to help facilitate the arrival of pilgrims and to assist them with religious rituals when visiting the two holy cities of Makkah and Madinah.

According to Arab News, Nusuk enables visitors from all over the world to organise their pilgrimage, including the eVisa applications and booking flights and accommodation.

28 Sep 2022; MEMO: Egypt has topped the list of arms importers from France in 2021 thanks to an order of 30 Rafale fighter jets, making the Middle East the largest arms buyer from France last year, according to an annual parliamentary report published yesterday.

NAIROBI, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- The African Union Advisory Board on Corruption (AUABC), established in 2009 to invigorate the fight against corruption, has been lobbying countries to ratify its convention to facilitate the elimination of the vice in the continent, an official said.

"We have been engaging with the relevant structures of the African Union to explain to all the member states the need to ratify the convention,"

WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan group of U.S. senators introduced legislation Wednesday to overhaul oversight and bring greater transparency to the crisis-plagued federal Bureau of Prisons following reporting from The Associated Press that exposed systemic corruption in the federal prison system and increased congressional scrutiny.

28 Sep 2022; MEMO: Turkiye's Foreign Ministry summoned the German ambassador to Ankara, on Tuesday, to protest over comments made by a senior German politician who likened President Tayyip Erdogan to a "little sewer rat", Reuters reports.

KIEV, September 28. /TASS/: The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has accused 16 individuals of collaboration for organizing referendums in the DPR, the LPR, the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions on joining Russia.

The list includes DPR head Denis Pushilin, head of the Zaporozhye Region’s military-civilian administration Yevgeny Balitsky, head of the Kherson Region’s military-civilian administration Vladimir Saldo and his deputy Kirill Stremousov.

ADEN, Sept 28 (NNN-YPA) – At least three soldiers of Yemen’s joint pro-government forces were killed, and 10 others injured, in clashes with Houthi fighters in the country’s Red Sea port city of Hodeidah, yesterday, a military official said.

The Houthis launched an attack, in an attempt to achieve a ground breakthrough, into the government-controlled areas, in the Hays District, sparking intense fighting in the area, the local military source said, on condition of anonymity.

NEW DELHI, Sept 28 (Reuters) - Indian companies are still buying Russian oil using dollars after Dubai's Mashreq Bank declined to handle payments from at least two refiners in Emirati Dirhams as requested by the supplier, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

Russia has been hit by sanctions from the United States and allies following its invasion of Ukraine, and Moscow has requested some buyers of its commodities pay using roubles or other currencies than the dollar and euro which its contracts are typically priced in.