LONDON, July 17 (Reuters) - Singer Elton John appeared by videolink in a London court on Monday to give evidence at Oscar-winning actor Kevin Spacey's sexual assault trial.

Spacey, 63, has pleaded not guilty at London's Southwark Crown Court to 12 charges of sexual offences allegedly committed against four men in Britain between 2001 and 2013.

The offences allegedly took place at a time when he was mainly living and working in Britain, including from 2003 as artistic director of the Old Vic theatre in London.

TOKYO, July 17 (Xinhua) -- Japan on Monday continued to issue heatstroke alerts with near-record high temperatures boiling many parts of the country.

As temperatures soared to nearly 40 degrees Celsius in many regions including Tokyo, heatstroke alerts were issued for both Monday and Tuesday on about 20 of the country's 47 prefectures, mainly in the east and southwest, according to the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA).

Of 914 places where temperatures were recorded across the country, 157 measured daily highs of at least 35 degrees Celsius on Sunday, JMA's data showed.

MOSCOW, July 17. /TASS/: Russia is expecting the international community to make an appropriate assessment of the terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

"The Russian Foreign Ministry strongly condemns the terrorist attack on the Crimean Bridge, which is a purely civilian facility. We expect that the international community and specialized multilateral structures will be principled and render a proper assessment of this latest crime perpetrated by the Ukrainian authorities," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

16 July 2023; MEMO: The Sudanese Army on Saturday accused the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of targeting a hospital and killing five people, reports Anadolu Agency.

"Continuing their violation of international humanitarian law and all norms of war, rebel militias targeted the emergency room of the military hospital in Omdurman with a drone today, killing five patients and injuring 22, mostly civilians," said the military in a statement.

LONDON (AP) — Russia has suspended a wartime deal designed to move grain from Ukraine to parts of the world where millions are going hungry.

The Black Sea Grain Initiative, brokered by the U.N. and Turkey, has allowed 32.9 million metric tons (36.2 million tons) of food to be exported from Ukraine since August, more than half to developing countries, according to the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul.

SANAA, Jul 17 (NNN-SABA) – The UN replacement ship arrived in Yemen’s Red Sea port city of Hodeidah yesterday, in preparation to transfer crude oil from a tanker, abandoned off the coast of the country since 2015, UN officials at the scene told reporters.

In the upcoming two-week first phase of the emergency rescue operation, the replacement vessel, Nautica, will transfer all crude from the floating supertanker, Safer, before a catenary anchor leg mooring buoy will be secured to the seabed, to fix the replacement ship in the second phase, according to the UN officials.

NEW DELHI (AP) — Finance ministers from the Group of 20 nations meeting in India on Monday are poised to address critical global economic challenges, including the threats posed by climate change and rising debt among low-income countries.

The finance minister of India, which is hosting the global grouping, said the G20 will focus on strengthening the global economy as growth remains uneven and below average.

KUALA LUMPUR, July 17 (Reuters) - Swiss watchmaker Swatch Group (UHR.S) has filed a lawsuit against the Malaysian government for confiscating rainbow-coloured watches that celebrate LGBT rights, in an act the company says has damaged its reputation.

Homosexuality is a crime in Muslim-majority Malaysia, and rights groups have warned of growing intolerance against the country's lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community.

July 17 (Reuters) - Powerful solar flare activity is forecast for Monday which may interfere with short-wave communications, Russian scientists said after three flares were observed on the sun on Sunday.

The Fedorov Institute of Applied Geophysics in Moscow said class X flares were possible, including proton flares, and short-wave radio conditions were expected to deteriorate.

X-class flares are the largest explosions in the solar systems and can create long-lasting radiation storms. Proton flares are a storm of solar energetic particles, composed chiefly of proton.

DAMASCUS, Jul 17 (NNN-SANA) – Firefighters have been battling massive forest wildfires in central, western and north-western Syria since last Wednesday, said state-run and pro-government media outlets.

The fires broke out in the countryside of the central province of Hama, the western coastal provinces of Tartous and Latakia, and the north-western province of Idlib, burning large swathes of agricultural and forest land in the areas, with Hama and Latakia most affected.

16 July 2023; MEMO: Turkey raised tax on petrol on Sunday to help to fund a 1.12 trillion lira ($42.2 billion) increase to its 2023 budget after February's earthquakes and the May presidential election sent spending soaring.

The additional fuel tax will help with a budget deficit that jumped to 263.6 billion lira in the first five months of the year, up from 124.6 billion lira a year earlier, but it could also stoke inflation that had declined to 38.21% in June from a 24-year high of 85.51% last October.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited the United Arab Emirates on Monday as part of a swing through the Arab Gulf states focused on energy and commerce.

He met with Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, the president of the UAE, which will be hosting the COP28 U.N. climate summit later this year.

Kishida visited Saudi Arabia over the weekend, where he met with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The two launched a joint initiative aimed at promoting clean energy. He will visit gas-rich Qatar on Tuesday.