BEIJING, Aug 1 (Reuters) - China should encourage its citizens to join counter-espionage work, including creating channels for individuals to report suspicious activity as well as commending and rewarding them, the state security ministry said on Tuesday.

A system that makes it "normal" for the masses to participate in counter-espionage must be established, wrote the Ministry of State Security, the main agency overlooking foreign intelligence and anti-spying, in its first post on its WeChat account, which went live on Monday.

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Russian authorities accused Kyiv early Tuesday of yet another attack on Moscow and its surroundings with drones, one of which hit the same building in the capital that was damaged by a drone just days ago in a similar attack.

Russian officials have claimed that the intensified attacks on the capital region reflect failures in Ukraine’s counteroffensive, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said over the weekend that “the war is gradually coming back to Russian territory,” but stopped short of taking responsibility for the attacks.

Aug 1 (Reuters) - Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko on Tuesday taunted Poland over the presence of Russian Wagner mercenaries near the NATO country's border, saying Warsaw should thank him for keeping them in check.

An unspecified number of the Wagner fighters who staged a brief mutiny in Russia in June have since moved to Belarus and have begun training Lukashenko's army, prompting Poland to start moving more than 1,000 of its own troops closer to the border.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The Wisconsin Supreme Court flips to liberal control for the first time in 15 years Tuesday with the start of the term of a new justice who made abortion rights a focus of her winning campaign.

Janet Protasiewicz will be sworn into office with a ceremony in the state Capitol Rotunda, the type of pomp and circumstance typically reserved for governors. Protasiewicz’s win carries tremendous weight in Wisconsin, a battleground where the state Supreme Court has been the last word on some of the biggest political and policy battles of the past decade-plus.

ISTANBUL, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Turkish anti-narcotics police have seized 8.5 tons of drugs and more than 2.5 million pills since January in Istanbul, the governor's office said in a statement on Tuesday.

The police have carried out 24,539 anti-narcotics operations and detained 3,251 suspects since January, said the statement.

It vowed to make unremitting efforts to counter drug-related crimes in Istanbul, the statement added.

HAVANA, August 1. /TASS/: Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega thinks that NATO countries that are participating in the conflict in Ukraine aspire to "conquer and occupy" Russia.

"This is the historic aspiration [of Western countries] to conquer and occupy Russia <...>. This is a war led by NATO and the US, who are trying to eliminate Russia in order to firmly establish themselves as the masters of the planet," Ortega said, as quoted by the 19 Digital news portal.

MAALE ADUMIM, West Bank (AP) — A Palestinian gunman opened fire in an Israeli settlement east of Jerusalem on Tuesday, wounding at least five people before being shot and killed, Israeli police said.

The shooting outside a shopping mall in the sprawling Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim, in the occupied West Bank, was the latest in the most violent stretch of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the territory in nearly two decades.

LA PAZ, Aug 1 (NNN-PRENSA LATINA) — Bolivian President Luis Arce will participate in the next Brics Summit (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), Foreign Minister Rogelio Mayta confirmed at a press conference.

His presence in the Brics forum in South Africa from August 22 to 24, in compliance with an invitation from South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, will put Bolivia back on the global scene, the foreign minister noted.

DUBAI, Aug 1 (Reuters) - Iran has announced Wednesday and Thursday this week will be public holidays because of "unprecedented heat" and told the elderly and people with health conditions to stay indoors, Iranian state media reported.

Many cities in southern Iran have already suffered from days of exceptional heat. State media reported temperatures had this week exceeded 123 degrees Fahrenheit (51 Celsius) in the southern city of Ahvaz.

MINSK, August 1. /TASS/: Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Tuesday that he plans to expedite the establishment of a contracted army using PMC Wagner fighters billeted in Belarus as the backbone of these forces.

"It was my initiative. I want these guys to stay in our country’s armed forces. And, relying on them, to take more active steps to establish a contracted army," the BelTA news agency quoted him as saying.

KABUL, Aug. 1 (Xinhua) -- Afghan Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi told U.S. officials at a meeting held in Doha that the U.S. sanctions against Afghanistan should be removed, the local Tolonews TV reported.

The Afghan media quoted the caretaker government's spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid as saying on Monday evening that Muttaqi also urged the U.S. side not to create obstacles to the economic development of Afghanistan.

BAGHDAD, Aug 1 (NNN-NINA) – Iraq, yesterday, discussed with the visiting secretary-general of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), ways to strengthen bilateral relations in various fields.

During a meeting with the GCC chief, Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi, Iraqi President, Abdul Latif Rasheed, expressed Iraq’s desire to establish strong political, social, administrative, and diplomatic ties with other countries, according to a statement by the Iraqi Presidency.