The death toll from Peru's forest fires has increased to 18.

"The forest fires injured 165 people and unfortunately have claimed the lives of 18 people so far this year," while some 2,000 hectares of crops have been affected.

At a meeting held on Friday at the National Emergency Operations Center headquarters, the institutional head of Indeci, Juan Urcariegui, said that 83 per cent of the fires in the country "have already been controlled and extinguished," the National Institute of Civil Defence (Indeci) said on Friday.

On Wednesday, the government declared a state of emergency in Amazonas, San Martin, and Ucayali due to severe fires, said Cesar Sierra, Indeci's response director.

India’s neighbour Sri Lanka will elect its new President on Saturday in the island nation’s first election after its economic collapse in 2022.

As many as 38 candidates are in the fray for the top job in an election that will be keenly watched by India and China as the island nation is of strategic importance to both the countries.

India, which has traditional ties with Sri Lanka is concerned over China’s growing influence over the tiny nation in its neighbourhood.

Polling in Sri Lanka began at 7 A.M. (local time) and will end at 4 P.M.

Counting of votes will begin soon after and the results are expected to be announced on Sunday.

The United Nations has released $2 million to kickstart Vietnam's response to Typhoon Yagi's widespread devastation, in which 290 people were killed, UN humanitarians said.

"National authorities report more than 290 deaths and damage to 237,000 homes, with 3 million people affected," the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Friday.

OCHA said that Acting UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Joyce Msuya allocated the $2 million from the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) as seed money to support the government's humanitarian response efforts, news agency reported.

"The funding will go to the International Organization for Migration, the UN Development Programme and UNICEF (the UN Children's Fund) to meet immediate life-saving needs in the most affected provinces of Yen Bai and Lao Cai," the office said.

Lebanon's Hezbollah on Friday night mourned the acting commander of its Elite Radwan Force, Ibrahim Akil, who was killed earlier in the day by an Israeli airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs.

"Today, the great jihadist leader Ibrahim Akil joined the procession of his brothers, the great martyr leaders, after a blessed life full of jihad, work, wounds, sacrifices, risks, challenges, achievements, and victories," read a statement released late Friday by Hezbollah.

Meanwhile, the local MTV channel reported that the body of Akil was found along with seven other members of Hezbollah's Elite Radwan Force.

The channel reported earlier that the whole command committee of the Elite Radwan Force was meeting in the building that was targeted by the Israeli airstrike.

A 49-year-old Filipino fisherman who spent 47 days drifting aimlessly at sea has been rescued after surviving on rainwater, coconuts and fish, the Philippine Coast Guard said on Friday.

Robin Dejillo, a native of Quezon province, southeast of Manila, has been reported missing since August 4 after his boat ran out of gas while conducting a fishing venture,news agency reported.

Coast Guard personnel found him on Thursday in the northernmost Batanes province, more than 600 km from Quezon province. Guard personnel sighted a white motorboat with an elderly man on board. The man was Dejillo.

Dejillo survived for more than a month at sea by drinking rainwater and eating fish. He was also sustained by eating coconuts floating on water.

New incentives were unveiled on Friday at the launch of the Forest City Special Financial Zone to boost an integrated development project in Malaysia's Johor state.

Among these are a zero per cent tax rate for family wealth offices, a concessionary corporate tax rate between zero and 5 per cent and a special 15 per cent individual income tax rate for knowledge workers and Malaysians working there, Second Finance Minister Amir Hamzah Azizan said in his speech at the launch of the zone,news agency reported.

Financial companies will also enjoy incentives that include special deductions on relocation costs, enhanced industrial building allowances and withholding tax exemptions, he said.

"Forest City with its combination of a duty-free island within a special financial zone, presents a unique proposition as a catalyst for economic development in the southern region of Malaysia, anchored on innovative financial services," he said.

The weather bureau of Laos has issued a warning urging residents to prepare for potential flooding as rainstorms are forecast to sweep through some regions in the country.

Heavy rain accompanied by wind gusts will continue throughout the country from Friday to Sunday, bringing further risk of flooding and landslides, according to a report issued on Friday by the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, news agency reported.

The weather bureau has advised people to be highly vigilant about potential flooding, particularly in the central and southern provinces.

Local authorities advised people to prepare to move their belongings and animals to safe places while tracking weather forecasts.

A car driven by a man in his 70s smashed into a hamburger restaurant in northern Seoul on Friday, killing one passerby and injuring five others, including the driver himself, officials said.

The crash occurred at 10:32 a.m. local time near Mia Station when the Hyundai Genesis sedan suddenly dashed from a side road into a six-lane main road, hurdled the guardrail set up at the centre of the road before crashing straight into the hamburger store, news agency reported.

A passerby was struck and taken to a hospital in a state of cardiac arrest but later died, police said.

The United Nations World Food Programme (UNWFP) will provide a one-month supply of emergency food rations to approximately 500,000 flood-affected people in Myanmar, the state-run daily The Global New Light of Myanmar, citing the WFP, reported on Friday.

The food rations, which will include rice, fortified biscuits, and nutrition products, aim to address immediate food needs, the WFP said in a statement dated September 18, news agency reported.

The WFP said it is working to provide emergency food assistance for the flood victims this week.

Before Typhoon Yagi, the WFP had already reached 185,000 flood-affected people in Myanmar with emergency assistance in July and August in response to floods that inundated hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland, it added.

Northeastern Japan is expected to see significant downpours as bands of heavy rain clouds have formed over the coast of Akita Prefecture, the country's weather agency said on Friday.

A low-pressure system accompanying a front over the Japan Sea has been feeding moist air from the south, causing unstable atmospheric conditions in coastal areas in northeastern Japan, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).

For the 24 hours through Saturday morning, rainfall of up to 150 millimetres is predicted in the Tohoku region and Niigata Prefecture and up to 80 millimetres in the Hokuriku region, the JMA said.