ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Pope Francis said on Sunday that the Catholic Church is open to everyone, including the gay community, and that it has a duty to accompany them on a personal path of spirituality but within the framework of its rules.

Francis, speaking to reporters on the plane returning to Rome from Portugal, also said his health was good following surgery for an abdominal hernia in June. He said his stitches had been removed but had to wear an abdominal band for another two or three months until his muscles strengthened.

OUAGADOUGOU, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- Mali and Burkina Faso will send a joint delegation to Niamey, the capital of Niger, on Monday in a show of solidarity amid a coup crisis, the Malian army said.

"Burkina Faso and Mali are sending a delegation to Niamey ... to show the solidarity of the two countries with the brotherly people of Niger," the army tweeted.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi state-run oil giant Aramco said Monday that it made $30 billion in profit in the second quarter, a nearly 40% decline from the same period the previous year that it attributed to lower oil prices.

Total sales stood at just over 400 billion riyals (about $106 billion), down from 562 billion riyals ($150 billion in the second quarter of 2022. In an earnings report filed with the Saudi stock exchange, Aramco said the decrease “mainly reflected the impact of lower crude oil prices and weakening refining and chemicals margins.”

ISLAMABAD, Aug 7 (Reuters) - Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan is being held in a small, dirty prison cell, one of his lawyer's said on Monday after being given access to the former cricket star in jail as he prepares to appeal against his graft conviction.

Khan, 70, has been at the heart of political turmoil since he was ousted as prime minister in a vote of no confidence last year, raising concern about stability in the nuclear-armed country as it grapples with an economic crisis.

NEW YORK, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Congress responded to the fiery train derailment in Ohio earlier this year with bipartisan alarm, with both parties agreeing that a legislative response was needed, but little has changed after six months, reported The Associated Press on Thursday.

07 August 2023; MEMO: A recent wave of Quran burnings in Sweden and Denmark is "an assertion of a broader anti-immigrant, anti-non-European right-wing bias that has grown to be quite politically strong," a former UN special rapporteur has said.

"There's no legitimate purpose by allowing groups to burn the holy scriptures of another religious faith," Richard Falk, a professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University, said.

TOKYO (AP) — Toshiba announced a 2 trillion yen ($14 billion) tender offer on Monday in a move that would take it private, as the scandal-tarnished Japanese electronics and energy giant seeks to turn itself around.

The tender offer led by a buyout fund of major Japanese banks and companies called Japan Industrial Partners starts Tuesday and is priced at 4,620 yen ($32) a share.

Chairperson Akihiro Watanabe asked shareholders to back the proposal, saying it is the only option for Toshiba Corp. to return to its former strength.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Monday chided efforts by international officials meeting in Saudi Arabia to find a peaceful settlement for the war in Ukraine, saying the talks don’t have “the slightest added value” because Moscow — unlike Kyiv — wasn’t invited.

Senior officials from around 40 countries gathered Sunday in Jeddah for a two-day meeting that aims to agree on key principles about how to end the conflict that has raged for more than 17 months.

KYIV, Aug 7 (Reuters) - A senior Ukrainian official said on Monday that the weekend's talks in Saudi Arabia about the war in Ukraine dealt a "huge blow" to Russia, and that the participants agreed to hold another meeting of political advisers within about six weeks.

More than 40 countries, including China, India, the United States, and European countries, but not Russia, took part in the talks that were seen as an attempt by Kyiv to build a broader coalition of powers to support its vision of peace.

06 August 2023; AA: Japan on Sunday marked the 78th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima by the US, which killed almost 140,000 people.

The highlight of the event was the traditional Peace Declaration delivered at the ceremony in the Peace Memorial Park by Hiroshima Mayor Kazumi Matsui, Tokyo-based Kyodo News reported.

NEW YORK (AP) — Elon Musk says his potential in-person fight with Mark Zuckerberg would be streamed on his social media site X, formerly known as Twitter.

The two tech billionaires seemingly agreed to a “cage match” face-off in late June. Zuckerberg is actually trained in mixed martial arts, and the CEO of Facebook’s parent company Meta posted about completing his first jiu jitsu tournament earlier this year.

“Zuck v Musk fight will be live-streamed on X,” Musk wrote in a post Sunday on the platform. “All proceeds will go to charity for veterans.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump’s defense attorney says the former president never asked Mike Pence to overturn the will of the voters in the 2020 election, but only wanted the former vice president to “pause” the certification of votes to allow states to investigate his claims of election fraud. Those baseless claims had already been rejected by numerous courts.

Speaking on several Sunday morning news shows, Trump attorney John Lauro said Trump was within his First Amendment rights when he petitioned Pence to delay the certification on Jan. 6, 2021.