A meeting of Commonwealth countries began in Samoa on Monday with a focus on the income inequity, violence and structural discrimination faced by women, described by Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Scotland as a "plague in our world".

Rescuers have recovered eleven bodies after an overloaded boat carrying around 30 people sank in the Andaman Sea off Myanmar's southern coast, a local resident told AFP on Monday, with the rest of the passengers still missing.

Recent statements by U.S. President Joe Biden's administration that Washington is ready for nuclear talks without preconditions with Russia, China and North Korea are a "deception," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.