KOREA PENINSULA: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has urged Washington to drop its demand that Pyongyang surrender its nuclear weapons as a precondition for resuming long-stalled diplomacy.

Addressing MPs on Sunday, he also stressed that he had no intention of ever resuming dialogue with South Korea.

South Korean President Lee Jae Myung departed for New York today to attend the United Nations general assembly, where he is expected to address nuclear tensions on the peninsula.

NORTHERN IRELAND: First Minister Michelle O’Neill has urged a Unionist legislator to “show sensitivity” after he asked her, during an attack on equalities' law, if a woman can have a penis.

Ms O’Neill described the question from Traditional Unionist Voice MLA Timothy Gaston as “absolutely ridiculous.”

She said: “All you are interested in is stoking up fear and tensions and hurt. Have a bit of sensitivity, have a bit of decency.”

MOLDOVA: The authorities carried out 250 raids and detained dozens of people today as part of an investigation into an alleged Russia-backed plan to incite “mass riots” and destabilise the country around a critical parliamentary election.

The raids targeted more than 100 people and took place in multiple localities, police said.

Seventy-four people were detained for up to 72 hours, said Victor Furtuna, chief prosecutor at the Office for Combating Organised Crime and Special Cases.

PHILIPPINES: Thousands of people were evacuated from northern villages and schools and offices were closed today in the archipelago and neighbouring Taiwan as one of this year’s strongest typhoons threatened to cause flooding and landslides on its way to south-eastern China.

Super Typhoon Ragasa had sustained winds of 134mph with gusts of up to 183 mph when it slammed into Cagayan province.