CAIRO (AP) — The United Nations said Friday that five staff members who were kidnapped in Yemen 18 months ago have walked free.

In a brief statement, Farhan Haq, the deputy spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, said all “available information suggests that all five colleagues are in good health.”

Haq named the freed men as Akm Sufiul Anam; Mazen Bawazir; Bakeel al-Mahdi; Mohammed al-Mulaiki; and Khaled Mokhtar Sheikh. All worked for the U.N. Department of Security and Safety, he said.

MOSCOW, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- Russia's air defense system has downed a drone that attempted to fly over Moscow, the Russian Defense Ministry said Friday.

"This afternoon, an attempt by the Kiev regime to carry out a terrorist attack with an unmanned aerial vehicle on a facility in Moscow was thwarted," the ministry said in a statement.

The unmanned aerial vehicle was downed by means of electronic equipment and crashed in a forest area in the west of the capital without casualties and damage on the ground, according to the ministry.

YANGON, Aug 11 (NNN-MNA) – Myanmar authorities seized over 61.34 tonnes of illegal timber across the country in a week, according to the state media today.

From Jul 31 to Aug 6, the authorities confiscated over 30.46 tonnes of teak, over 4.41 tonnes of hardwood and over 26.45 tonnes of other types of timber, in the country’s regions, states and Naypyidaw Union Territory, state media reported.

During the seven days, 14 offenders were charged in connection with the cases, along with the seizure of six vehicles and machines.

10 August 2023; MEMO: Syrian President, Bashar Al Assad, has said he would welcome home refugees who escaped the country's long-running civil war, Sky News Arabia reports.

According to the report, Assad blamed the country's economic situation as the reason why refugees are not returning to their homeland, pointing to the "image of war" in Syria for the lack of much-needed international investment in its economy.

MOSCOW, August 11. /TASS/: Russia is taking all necessary measures to guarantee national security but is firmly committed to the principle of the inadmissibility of a nuclear war, the Russian foreign ministry said on Friday, commenting on the decisions made by Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States to not target strategic nuclear missiles.

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Bangladesh is struggling to deal with higher casualties and infections from dengue this year, with officials warning that the death toll this month could break records.

The government’s Directorate General of Health Services reports the 2023 death toll from the mosquito-born illness has reached 364 in the south Asian country. More than 78,000 people have been infected since January this year, it said.

10 August 2023; MEMO: In a bid to counter progressive candidates critical of Israel, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has intensified its recruitment efforts for the 2024 US elections. The pro-Israel group is actively seeking House candidates to challenge prominent members of the "Squad", such as Jamaal Bowman and Ilhan Omar.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, Shukria Sediqi knew her days in safety were numbered. As a journalist who advocated for women’s rights, she’d visited shelters and safe houses to talk to women who had fled abusive husbands. She went with them to court when they asked for a divorce.

According to the Taliban, who bar women from most public places, jobs and education, her work was immoral.

MOSCOW, August 11. /TASS/: Commodity prices, including oil prices, will fall as a result of deglobalization, but Russia's GDP will not fall below 2020 levels even under a risky scenario, the Bank of Russia reported on Friday.

By 2026, the Bank of Russia intends to achieve 1.5-2.5% GDP growth and bring the key rate to a long-term neutral range of 5.5-6.5%.

TOKYO, Aug. 11 (Xinhua) -- The operator of the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has found leaks in a hose used to transfer nuclear-contaminated wastewater, local media reported on Friday.

Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) conducted a probe after higher-than-usual levels of radioactive material were detected in rainwater in the dike around a storage tank, public broadcaster NHK reported.

BAMAKO, Aug 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Mali has indefinitely suspended the issuance of visas to French nationals at its embassy in Paris.

In a statement, it said the move was reciprocal after it “learnt with surprise” that France had classified Mali to be in a “red zone” due to supposed “strong regional tensions”.

France earlier this week suspended the issuance of visas and closed the visa centre at its embassy in Mali’s capital, Bamako.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Nearly two months after a dilapidated fishing trawler crammed with people heading from Libya to Italy sank in the central Mediterranean, killing hundreds, relatives are still frantically searching for their loved ones among the missing and the dead.

Many questions remain about Greek authorities’ response and exactly how and why the boat, carrying an estimated 500-750 people mostly from Pakistan, Syria and Egypt, capsized and sank in the early hours of June 14 in what became one of the deadliest migrant shipwrecks in the Mediterranean.