ISLAMABAD, July 28 (Xinhua) -- The Counter Terrorism Department (CTD) of police in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province arrested 17 terrorists during intelligence-based operations, the police said on Friday.

The personnel of the CTD of Punjab police conducted multiple operations in different districts of the province to avert terror activities, apprehending 17 terrorists, the CTD Punjab said in a statement.

MOSCOW, July 28. /TASS/: Russian forces seized several Ukrainian strongholds near the settlement of Sergeyevka in the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), advancing 1.5 km deep into the enemy’s defense over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant-General Igor Konashenkov reported on Friday.

AMMAN, Jul 28 (NNN-PETRA) – Jordan’s Foreign Minister, Ayman Safadi, urged an end to “all illegal Israeli actions” that undermine the two-state solution, during a joint press conference with visiting British Foreign Secretary, James Cleverly, in the capital, Amman.

Safadi condemned Israeli extremists for storming the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and performing “provocative” religious rituals, in violation of international law.

CAIRO (AP) — Amna al-Nour narrowly escaped death twice. The first was when militias torched her family’s home in Sudan’s Darfur region. The second was two months later when paramilitary fighters stopped her and others trying to escape as they tried to reach the border with neighboring Chad.

“They massacred us like sheep,” the 32-year-old teacher said of the attack in late April on her home city Geneina. “They want to uproot us all.”

MEXICO CITY, July 28 (Reuters) - Mexico's peso on Friday hit its highest level against the dollar since early December 2015, as the greenback lost steam after a slowdown in U.S. inflation bolstered the case for the Federal Reserve to end its interest rate hikes.

The currency, which has been dubbed the "super peso" in some quarters, including by its most prominent cheerleader, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, strengthened by more than 1.3% in morning trading to 16.63 per dollar.

MOSCOW, July 28. /TASS/: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his counterparts from 31 African countries participating in the second Russia-Africa summit and economic-and-humanitarian forum discussed ways of strengthening mutually beneficial partnership as well as broaching international problems, the Russian foreign ministry said on Friday.

LAHORE, Pakistan/XI'AN, China, July 28 (Xinhua) -- As the sun rises and street lights turn off in Lahore, capital of Pakistan's eastern Punjab province, the city wakes up and gets bustling with life.

As the day begins, Zubair Tufail, a team supervisor of operations at a converter station of ±660 kilovolt Matiari-Lahore high-voltage direct current (HVDC) transmission project in a suburb of Lahore, starts his daily work.

DUBAI, Jul 28 (NNN-WAM) – The United Arab Emirates (UAE), yesterday strongly condemned the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem by Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir.

In a statement, the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs “reaffirmed the UAE’s firm position on the need to provide full protection for Al-Aqsa Mosque, and halt serious and provocative violations taking place there.”

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Authorities are maintaining an exclusion zone around an air force base in central Greece where wildfires have triggered powerful explosions at an ammunition depot.

The blasts late Thursday at the 111th Combat Wing base facilities — among the largest in the country — shattered windows in nearby towns and prompted an evacuation of more than 2,000 people, while fighter jets nearby were moved to another base.

A civilian traffic ban and evacuation order remained in effect in a 3-kilometer (2-mile) radius of the blast site.

AMSTERDAM, July 28 (Reuters) - The fire which has been burning on a car carrier off the Dutch coast has lessened in intensity and salvagers have been able to board the ship to secure stronger tow lines, authorities said on Friday.

The fire on the Panamanian-registered Fremantle Highway, which was carrying new cars, resulted in the death of an Indian crew member and injury of seven others who jumped overboard to escape the flames.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has passed a massive annual defense bill that would deliver a 5.2% pay raise for service members and keep the nation’s military operating, avoiding partisan policy battles with an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote.

ST. PETERSBURG, July 28. /TASS/: Russia remains open for settling the Ukraine situation but the Ukrainian authorities stick to their irreconcilable position even being in an uneasy situation, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.

"The Russian side remains open, which cannot be said about the Ukrainians. The Ukrainians stick to their irreconcilable position, especially now that they are in quite an uneasy situation but, nonetheless, they keep rejecting any opportunity for dialogue," the Russian presidential spokesman said.