SANAA/RIYADH -- More than 70 people have been killed in fierce fighting between Yemen's Houthi group and government forces in southwestern Taiz province over the past 24 hours, military and medical sources said Friday, as the Houthis reported 94 Saudi air and missile strikes while Riyadh claimed interception of three Houthi ballistic missiles.
A Yemeni government military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said more than 20 government soldiers and nearly 10 allied local fighters had been killed and dozens of others wounded in fighting in Taiz over the past 24 hours. (Yemen-Saudi Arabia-Houthi)
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PARIS -- The Group of Seven (G7), in coordination with the International Energy Agency, will release up to 100 million barrels of diesel and other oil reserves over the next four months, according to a joint G7 leaders' statement released by the Elysee Palace on Friday.
G7 leaders held a virtual meeting earlier in the day to address growing energy security challenges. According to the statement, the G7 will coordinate maintenance schedules across refineries to prevent simultaneous capacity shutdowns and temporarily increase utilization rates where feasible. (G7-Energy-Diesel)
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NEW YORK -- U.S. nonfarm payrolls increased by 29,000 jobs in September, far below expectations, while the unemployment rate rose to 4.2 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday.
The tepid September gain contrasts with a solid 133,000 job gain in August. Economists polled by Reuters and The Wall Street Journal had expected payrolls to rise by 84,000 to 90,000 in September. (U.S.-Nonfarm-Unemployment)
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SEOUL -- South Korean Unification Minister Chung Dong-young on Friday proposed dialogue with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to resolve lingering discrepancies over the military demarcation line (MDL) following the recent landmine explosion in the demilitarized zone (DMZ).
Describing the DMZ mine blast as an "unfortunate incident," Chung told domestic reporters that the core cause of the accident stemmed from different measurements of the MDL. (South Korea-DPRK-DMZ) ■
