Briefly

UNITED STATES

Shutdown looms as Senate blocks bill

The US Senate failed to pass a stopgap funding bill on Friday as Republicans raced to avert a government shutdown. Lawmakers in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives had narrowly passed the measure, but it was shot down by Democrats in the Senate amid no signs of compromise with Republicans on the national budget. With both chambers scheduled to be on recess this week and senators returning on Sept 29, time is running out to keep the government funded after the end of the fiscal year Sept 30.A shutdown would see nonessential operations start to grind to a halt and hundreds of thousands of civil servants temporarily left without pay. The Senate bill was rejected with only one Democrat voting in favor, well short of the 10 that helped the Republicans back in March when they faced a previous funding deadline.

IRAN

Cooperation with UN watchdog to be halted

Iran's top security body said on Saturday the country's cooperation with the United Nations nuclear watchdog would be "effectively" suspended following a UN Security Council vote not to maintain the lifting of international sanctions on Tehran. A statement from Iran's Supreme National Security Council detailed the outcomes of a meeting chaired by President Masoud Pezeshkian. During the meeting, the council discussed the "ill-considered "actions by France, the United Kingdom and Germany regarding Iran's nuclear program. It declared that Tehran's cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency would be effectively suspended in response to the European countries' actions, despite Iran's current cooperation with the agency and proposals to resolve the nuclear issue.

UNITED NATIONS

Council to meet over Estonia-Russia row

The United Nations Security Council is due to meet on Monday over Estonia's accusation that Russian fighter jets violated its airspace, diplomats say. The Estonian Foreign Ministry said on Friday "the incursion took place over the Gulf of Finland, where three Russian Federation MiG-31 fighter aircraft entered Estonian airspace without permission and remained there for a total of 12 minutes". Russia's Defense Ministry rejected the accusation, saying the aircraft were on a planned flight that "was carried out in strict compliance with international airspace regulations and did not violate the borders of other states, as confirmed by objective monitoring".

Agencies - Xinhua