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Hundreds of volunteers joined a mass cleanup drive along the coast of the polluted Manila Bay in the Philippine capital to mark International Coastal Cleanup Day on Saturday.

Volunteers and government workers, including hundreds of coast guard personnel, collected sachets, rubber slippers and other non-biodegradable waste that have been washed in the Manila Bay, a 60 km (37 mile) semi-enclosed estuary facing the South China Sea.

Hundreds of volunteers joined a mass cleanup drive along the coast of the polluted Manila Bay in the Philippine capital to mark International Coastal Cleanup Day on Saturday.

Volunteers and government workers, including hundreds of coast guard personnel, collected sachets, rubber slippers and other non-biodegradable waste that have been washed in the Manila Bay, a 60 km (37 mile) semi-enclosed estuary facing the South China Sea.

"This initiative will help make our coastal area in Manila Bay better so that our tourists and visitors will see the beauty of the bay," college student Kendrick Lopez, 18, told Reuters during the cleanup drive.

Waters along the Manila Bay, famous for its idyllic sunsets, are heavily polluted by oil, grease and trash from nearby residential areas and ports.

The Philippines is rich in marine resources, with nearly 36,300 km (22,555 miles) of coastline in the archipelago of more than 7,600 islands.

But it is the world's top polluter when it comes to releasing plastic waste into the ocean, accounting for roughly a third the total, according to an April 2022 report by the University of Oxford's Our World in Data, a scientific online publication.

"We need to do these (cleanup drives) for our environment and to discourage people from throwing trash on the seaside," Janet Panganiban, a 36-year-old volunteer, told Reuters.

Critics say laws regulating solid waste are inadequate and poorly enforced, leaving governments and communities struggling to address the pollution crisis.

The International Coastal Cleanup Day is held every third Saturday of September to raise awareness of the growing garbage problems affecting coastlines around the world. (Reuters)

Sudan's military leaders agreed on the appointment of a prime minister and head of state by civilian political forces, General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo said in a statement on Friday, following a meeting with head of state General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

The generals reaffirmed statements from this summer that the military "would exit the political scene and focus fully on its duties as laid out in the constitution and the law," following the appointment of a civilian government, the statement said.

Sudan's military took power in an October coup that ended a power-sharing agreement with civilian pro-democracy parties, plunging the country into political and economic turmoil.

Mediation efforts led by the United Nations, African Union, and foreign powers have not come to fruition. Civilian groups have demanded the complete and immediate exit of the military from politics.

Sources told Reuters that earlier this week Burhan had met with ambassadors from the United States, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to discuss political solutions to the crisis.

A draft constitution circulated by the Sudanese Bar Association in recent weeks has received praise from some political groups, as well as General Dagalo, leader of the controversial Rapid Support Forces, in a statement this week.

Sudan's pro-democracy movement, led by neighbourhood resistance committees, has held demonstrations weekly since the coup, with the latest scheduled for Saturday in the city of Bahri. (Reuters)

U.S. President Joe Biden on Friday discussed relations with Russia in a White House meeting with South Africa's Cyril Ramaphosa, who has resisted joining Washington's campaign against Moscow for the war in Ukraine.

Biden, who has led an international coalition to punish Russian President Vladimir Putin for the near-seven month war in Ukraine, wants South Africa's help in efforts that include forcing Moscow to sell its oil at below-market rates.

After a jovial greeting before the press, the two leaders spoke privately in the Oval Office for more than an hour on topics that included trade, climate and energy, the White House said.

They committed to addressing several of "the world’s most urgent challenges over which we both share concern, including the Russia-Ukraine conflict and its negative consequences for food security in Africa," the White House said.

Biden also announced $45 million in funding for an $8.5 multinational venture aimed at accelerating the phasing out of coal-fired power generation in South Africa.

The additional U.S. funding for the Just Energy Transition Partnership comes at time when declining natural gas and oil exports from Russia and Ukraine have boosted South African coal and set back decarbonization goals for one of the world's most carbon-intensive economies.

In recent weeks, Biden and his aides have been ramping up engagements with African countries as they cast a wary eye on investments and diplomacy by rivals Russia and China on the continent. 

Ramaphosa has resisted calls to directly criticize Russia, instead opposing the use of force generally. In March, he blamed NATO's eastward expansion for instability and said the conflict should be solved through United Nations mediation rather than Western-led sanctions that hurt "bystander countries."

South Africa was one of 17 African countries to abstain from the U.N. vote condemning Russia's assault.

"Our position on this is respected, it is known and recognized," Ramaphosa told reporters after the meeting. "Clearly the conflict has to be resolved. Our view is that it can best be resolved through dialogue and negotiations."

Ramaphosa's African National Congress (ANC) party, which has governed South Africa since white minority rule ended in 1994, had strong ties to the former Soviet Union, which trained and supported anti-apartheid activists.

However, South Africa still enjoys a high level of diplomatic clout among Russia's rivals in the West relative to its economic size since its peaceful transition to democracy.

Last month, during a visit to South Africa, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington would not dictate Africa's choices, after pledging to "do things differently," following former President Donald Trump's insulting remarks about African countries.

A bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives in April would boost U.S. efforts to counter Russian influence in Africa.

"We have expressed our discomfort and our opposition," Ramaphosa said in a video uploaded to Twitter. "We should not be told by anyone who we associate with and we should never be put in positions where we have to choose who our friends are."

Africans often resent being a theater for competition between China, Russia and the Western order. The Ukraine war exacerbated the longstanding rivalry over Africa's natural resources, trade and security ties.

War and inflation have pressured South Africa, where half of the population lived below the poverty line even before the war dried up Russia and Ukraine's grain and fertilizer exports.

Biden is due to host more leaders from the continent in December, when ANC members will also decide whether to keep Ramaphosa as their party leader. (Reuters)

Taiwan is eyeing an earlier end to its mandatory quarantine for all arrivals and has been making relevant preparations, Premier Su Tseng-chang said on Friday, as the government continues to ease controls put in place to contain the spread of COVID-19.

Taiwan has kept its entry and quarantine rules in place as large parts of the rest of Asia have relaxed or lifted them completely, though in June it cut the number of days spent in isolation for arrivals to three from seven previously.

Taiwan has reported more than 5.7 million domestic cases since the beginning of the year, driven by the more infectious Omicron variant. With more than 99% of those showing no or only mild symptoms, the government has relaxed rather than tightened restrictions in its "new Taiwan model", although it has not given a timeline for when quarantine rules may be scrapped.

Su that said while cases were gradually ticking up at the moment that was in line with expectations.

"We are also preparing for a steady opening up with all ministries and departments," he told reporters.

"If during the (next) two weeks it can be monitored and predictions are as we first had them, if (cases) gradually rise and then slow down, then we can open up earlier."

Taiwan Centres for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang said this week it was possible the quarantine rule would be lifted entirely next month.

Taiwan this week began resuming visa free entry for visitors from countries including the United States and Canada, though the need for a PCR test upon arrival remains, as does the current cap on 50,000 arrivals a week.

Taiwan, which has a well vaccinated population, has already ended the requirement for pre-departure negative PCR tests.

Throughout the pandemic Taiwanese citizens and foreign residents have never been prohibited from leaving and then re-entering, but have had to quarantine at home or in hotels.

Before the pandemic, Taiwan was a popular tourist destination for mainly Asian visitors, with Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia the most important markets. (Reuters)