International news brief: Queen Elizabeth's funeral today; Strong quake hits Taiwan

London, Sep 18: Queen Elizabeth's hour-long state funeral, the first in Britain since the death of her first prime minister Winston Churchill in 1965, will take place today at Westminster Abbey in London.

The funeral will bring to an end 11 days of national mourning across the United Kingdom that has seen the personal sorrow of the royal family play out in the glare of intense international attention.

Military and diplomatic pressures mount for Russia

Pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin mounted on the battlefield and in the halls of global power as Ukrainian troops pushed their counteroffensive Saturday to advance farther into Ukraine's partly recaptured northeast. Western officials and analysts said Russian forces were apparently setting up a new defensive line in Ukraine's northeast after the counteroffensive punched through the previous one, allowing Kyiv's soldiers to recapture large swaths of land in the northeastern Kharkiv region that borders Russia.

Putin, at a high-level summit in Uzbekistan this week, vowed to press his attack on Ukraine despite the recent military setbacks but also faced concerns by India and China over the drawn-out conflict.

Dozens dead in Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan border clash

Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan on Sunday released tolls for the people who died during recent clashes along the border.

Kyrgyzstan's Health Ministry said at least 36 people died during recent clashes - revising the death toll from 24 earlier this week - and more than 130 injured.

Kyrgyz officials said they evacuated some 137,000 people from the conflict area along the border, while the government declared September 19 a day of mourning for victims.

Strong quake kills 1, knocks house, derails train in Taiwan

A strong earthquake shook much of Taiwan on Sunday, toppling a three-story building and temporarily trapping four people inside, stranding about 400 tourists on a mountainside, and knocking part of a passenger train off its tracks. One person died and nine people had minor injuries, Taiwan's Emergency Operations Centre said.

The magnitude 6.8 quake was the largest among dozens that have rattled the island's southeastern coast since Saturday evening, when a 6.4 quake struck the same area. Most of the damage appeared to be north of the epicentre, which Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau said was in the town of Chishang at the relatively shallow depth of 7 km (4 miles).

With agency inputs