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.

South Korea's Ministry of the Interior and Safety said on Friday that the government has raised the heavy rain warning level by one notch from "interest" to "caution."

A torrential rain advisory has been issued for the nation's central and southern regions as well as the southern island of Jeju.

The ministry also activated "Level One" of the Central Disaster and Safety Countermeasures Headquarters' emergency response posture and asked all relevant government offices to implement safety measures against landslides, flooding of underground passages and other damage from downpours, news agency reported.

According to the Korea Meteorological Administration (KMA), heavy rain of more than 30 millimetres was falling per hour in the southern provinces of Jeolla, and central provinces of Chungcheong and Jeju as of Friday afternoon.

Portugal is mobilising the "largest firefighting force ever" to tackle wildfires that erupted on Sunday and are continuing to ravage Portugal.

"In these most critical days, we had the largest firefighting device ever mobilised in our country," Portugal's Minister of Internal Administration Margarida Blasco told during a press conference, referring to the massive deployment of personnel and resources on Thursday.

According to data from the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority, 37,772 operatives, 10,639 ground vehicles, and 827 air missions have been utilised to battle the fires, news agency reported.

The fires have claimed seven lives, left 161 people injured, and destroyed dozens of homes.

New Zealand has passed tougher laws to ban gang insignia in all public places, and allow courts to issue non-consorting orders and police to stop criminal gangs from associating and communicating.

Legislation passed through Parliament on Thursday, to be effective from November 21, will provide police and the courts with additional tools to crack down on gangs that "peddle misery and intimidation throughout New Zealand," said Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith.

Greater weight will also be given to gang membership at sentencing, enabling courts to impose more severe punishments, Goldsmith said, adding that gang membership has increased 51 per cent over the last five years, alongside violent crime increasing 33 per cent, news agency reported.

Three workers at a gold mine in northern Afghanistan's Badakhshan province lost their lives due to a mudslide, Provincial Director for Information and Culture Hekmatullah Mohammadi said on Friday.

The miners were busy extracting gold from a gold mine in Khwahan district on Thursday afternoon when a hilltop slipped suddenly, killing the three on the spot, the official added without providing more details, news agency reported.

Border Police of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) arrested a Turkish national after he was caught smuggling 11 Syrian citizens near the Gradiška border, a northern city bordering Croatia.

The suspect was intercepted during a border surveillance operation while attempting to transport the Syrian migrants into Croatian territory using a passenger vehicle with BiH registration plates, the Border Police said on Thursday.

Following the prosecutor's order, the suspect was arrested and questioned, with further investigations ongoing. A report on the criminal offence will be submitted to the BiH Prosecutor's Office for prosecution, news agency reported.

Border Police of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) arrested a Turkish national after he was caught smuggling 11 Syrian citizens near the Gradiška border, a northern city bordering Croatia.

The suspect was intercepted during a border surveillance operation while attempting to transport the Syrian migrants into Croatian territory using a passenger vehicle with BiH registration plates, the Border Police said on Thursday.

Following the prosecutor's order, the suspect was arrested and questioned, with further investigations ongoing. A report on the criminal offence will be submitted to the BiH Prosecutor's Office for prosecution, news agency reported.

Russia is prepared to defend its interests in the Arctic, even through military means, as NATO increases its military exercises in the region, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying.

"We observe how NATO is escalating exercises related to potential crises in the Arctic. Our country is fully prepared to defend its interests on military, political, and military-technical fronts," Lavrov told an interview for the documentary series 'Soviet Breakthrough,' news agency reported.

Lavrov's comments come amid heightened tensions in the Arctic, where NATO has been ramping up its presence.

In July, the US Department of Defence released an updated version of its Arctic Strategy, outlining plans for joint military exercises with its allies to demonstrate combat readiness and operational compatibility. The strategy also highlights intentions to work with partners, local industries, and Alaska's native tribes to "strengthen integrated deterrence and increase shared security" in the region.

The lethal combination of hunger, displacement and disease outbreaks in Sudan is creating "a perfect storm" for a catastrophic loss of lives, UN humanitarians warned.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said it sounded the alarm about a devastating cost to human life if the international community fails to act by providing aid funding, news agency reported.

"To fight hunger in the country, the World Food Programme (WFP) is rushing to reach people in the grip of famine," OCHA said.

However, the office said that without consistent humanitarian access, it will be impossible to meet growing needs.