China said Wednesday it has dispatched navy ships in preparation for joint exercises with Russia’s sea forces, in a sign of Beijing’s continuing support for Moscow’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine.

The move comes despite the growing economic and humanitarian repercussions of the bloody 16 month-old air, sea and ground assault.

CAIRO, Jul 19 (NNN-MENA) – Egypt’s Health Ministry announced yesterday that, some villagers in Upper Egypt’s province of Qena have tested positive for the dengue virus.

The dengue fever cases were reported in the Al-Ilayqat village of Qena Province last week, the ministry said in a statement.

So far, no death has been reported from the mosquito-borne virus, as the symptoms of the patients, who were treated at home, were mild, it said.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — North Korea’s U.N. ambassador defended his country’s recent long-range missile launch in a rare appearance at the U.N. Security Council on Thursday where he also accused the United States of driving the situation in northeast Asia “to the brink of nuclear war.”

LONDON/GAYDON, England, July 19 (Reuters) - India's Tata Group will build an electric vehicle battery plant in Britain to supply its Jaguar Land Rover factories, delivering a major boost for a UK car industry in need of domestic battery production to help secure its future.

The announcement marks Britain's biggest move in the car gigafactory space as it seeks to keep up with the United States and European Union in the race to develop green industries.

TOKYO (AP) — Blue-roofed huts, a raised slab of concrete and some raked gravel are all that separate the rival Koreas at Panmunjom, a rare point of close contact along the most heavily armed border in the world.

People have stepped across that thin dividing line, but only under very special circumstances, passing between two nations that are still technically at war.

WASHINGTON, July 19 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday that a U.S. soldier crossed the Military Demarcation Line into the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) "willfully and without authorization".

"A U.S. National on a JSA (Joint Security Area) orientation tour crossed, without authorization, the Military Demarcation Line into the DPRK," the U.S.-led United Nations Command said Tuesday in a press release.

ATHENS, Jul 19 (NNN-AMNA) – Hundreds of Greek firefighters continued for a second day yesterday, to battle two major wildfires near Dervenochoria, some 30 km north-west of Athens, and near the seaside resort of Loutraki, about 80 km south-west of the capital, authorities said.

No injuries have been reported, but the blazes scorched forested areas and forced the evacuation of six settlements, Fire Service spokesperson, Vasilios Vathrakogiannis, said, in a press release.

AMMAN, Jul 19 (NNN-PETRA) – The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), yesterday, called for taking immediate action to address its funding crisis, to avoid dire consequences for refugees.

Dominik Bartsch, the UN refugee agency’s representative in Jordan, said that, the current shortfall in funding for refugee response is threatening the significant progress made over the past decade, the state-run Al Mamlaka TV reported.

SINGAPORE, July 19 (Reuters) - Two senior members of Singapore's largest opposition party quit on Wednesday after admitting to an inappropriate relationship, the latest scandal to hit a country otherwise used to stable and drama-free politics.

The Workers' Party (WP) said member of parliament Leon Perera and its youth wing president Nicole Seah had handed in letters of resignation after a video circulated on social media earlier this week showing the pair holding hands.

17 July 2023; MEMO: Russia, on Monday, suspended the Black Sea grain deal, the Kremlin said, Anadolu Agency reports.

17 July 2023; MEMO: Insurers are reviewing whether to freeze cover for any ships willing to sail to Ukraine after Russia, on Monday, quit a UN-backed deal that allows the export of grain through a wartime Black Sea safe corridor, industry sources said, Reuters reports.

Bengaluru, Jul 18 (PTI) Several opposition leaders hit out at the BJP on Tuesday, saying their meeting here is aimed at saving the country, democracy and the Constitution.

They alleged the country's democracy was being "played with" under the BJP government and there was a need to protect the "idea of India".

Deliberations at the opposition unity meeting underway in Bengaluru aim at giving the grouping of 26 parties a name, structure and common agenda to take on the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.