MANILA, Aug 3 (NNN-PNA) – A ferry boat with about 70 people on board, sank off Quezon province, in the south of Luzon island in the Philippines, local media reported, today.

Philippine Coast Guard confirmed the accident, without providing further details, adding, a search and rescue operation is ongoing.

Ferry accidents are common in the country, mainly due to frequent storms, ill-maintained boats, overcrowding and weak enforcement of safety regulations.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian shelling on Thursday damaged a landmark church in the southern city of Kherson that once held the remains of a renowned 18th-century Russian commander.

Ukraine’s emergency service said four of its workers were wounded in a second round of shelling as they fought the fire at St. Catherine’s Cathedral. Four other people were wounded in the first shelling attack, which also hit a trolleybus, the prosecutor general’s office said.

RAMALLAH, Aug 3 (NNN-WAFA) – Palestine’s ties with the U.S. are at the lowest level, as Washington fails to pressure Israel to stop its actions against Palestine, a senior Palestinian official said, yesterday.

The U.S. does not want to stop any Israeli plan or project to “save the stalled peace process from the deadlock it has reached, due to the continuing Israeli practices against the Palestinians,” said Ahmad Majdalani, a member of the executive committee of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).

LONDON, Aug 3 (Reuters) - The Bank of England raised its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to a 15-year peak of 5.25% on Thursday, and gave a new warning that borrowing costs were likely to stay high for some time.

Unlike the U.S. Federal Reserve or the European Central Bank - which also both raised rates by a quarter-point last week - the BoE's Monetary Policy Committee gave little suggestion that rate hikes were about to end as it battles high inflation.

RAMALLAH, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday slammed Israel as a state "above the law" in terms of its "persecution" against Palestinians, calling on the international community to stop the practices.

Abbas made the remarks during a meeting with his Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides held in the West Bank city of Ramallah, during which they discussed bilateral relations and the Palestinian issue, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

PYATIGORSK, August 3. /TASS/: Russia’s presidential election in March 2024 will differ from all previous elections, for it may determine not only the fate of the country, but also the future of the entire world, Central Election Commission (CEC) Chairwoman Ella Pamfilova said at the opening ceremony of the "Time for Choosing" forum on the Organization of Training and Mentoring in the Electoral Process in Pyatigorsk, Stavropol Region.

NEW DELHI (AP) — India will participate in a weekend meeting that Saudi Arabia is hosting to find a way to start negotiations to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Saudi Arabia invited India to the two-day meeting in Jeddah and its “participation is in consonance with our long-standing position that dialogue and diplomacy is the way forward,” Arindam Bagchi, the spokesman for India’s External Affairs Ministry, told reporters in New Delhi on Thursday.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel is being rocked by a wave of mass protests calling for the country’s democracy to be upheld. But the pro-democracy movement lacks any clear message of opposition to Israel’s open-ended military rule over millions of Palestinians.

This contradiction reflects a widely held belief among Jewish Israelis that the conflict with the Palestinians is both intractable and somehow separate from Israel’s internal strife.

VIENNA, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- The AUKUS nuclear submarine deal poses a serious risk to regional and global security, according to a joint report released on Wednesday by a Chinese and a Russian think tank at a seminar here.

The report, called "The AUKUS submarine deal: risks for the nuclear non-proliferation regime and global security", was published by the China Arms Control and Disarmament Association and Russia's Center for Energy and Security Studies.

MOSCOW, August 3. /TASS/: The date and location for a meeting between Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are now under consideration and will be agreed upon through diplomatic channels, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

"The presidents have generally confirmed their intention to hold a meeting soon. However, a time and a place for the meeting will be further agreed upon through diplomatic channels," he noted.

MANILA, Aug 3 (NNN-PNA) – The Philippines’ Department of Health (DOH), today expressed concern over the rising number of leptospirosis cases in the country, amid the flooding across many regions due to days of heavy rainfall.

The health agency logged 2,079 cases from Jan 1 to Jul 15, this year, with at least 225 deaths. The DOH warned that cases may still increase.

The cases were reported in at least 10 regions, including Metro Manila, which showed a rise in patients in the last four weeks.

NIAMEY, Niger (AP) — Hundreds of people rallied in support of Niger’s ruling junta in the capital on Thursday, denouncing France and others who have criticized a recent coup — as the country’s military leaders sought to exploit anti-Western sentiment to shore up their takeover.