SANAA, July 16 (Xinhua) -- A UN replacement ship arrived in Yemen's Red Sea port city of Hodeidah on Sunday, in preparation to transfer crude oil from a tanker abandoned off the coast of the war-torn 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.

MOSCOW, July 16./TASS/: Russian air defenses have intercepted three HIMARS rockets, two S-200 missiles and downed 13 Ukrainian drones in the past 24 hours, Defense Ministry Spokesman Igor Konashenkov told a briefing on Sunday.

"Air defense systems intercepted three HIMARS MRLS rockets and two S-200 surface-to-air missiles reequipped into attack weapons to hit ground targets in the past 24 hours," he said.

SANDTON (South Africa), July 16 (NNN-ALLAFRICA) — South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa says his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin will attend the BRICS summit in person, despite an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court.

Following the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court against Putin, there have been suggestions that the event could happen virtually.

But, according to Kyiv Post, Ramaphosa assured at a meeting of the BRICS Business Council in Sandton on Thursday that the summit will be held live, rather than online.

LUGANSK, July 16. /TASS/: Ukrainian troops hit a storage facility with ammonal and trotyl used in the mining sector near the village of Yubileiny in a Lugansk suburb, Andrey Marochko, a retired colonel of the People’s Militia of the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR), said on Sunday.

"A shell hit the so-called dynamite depot located near Lugansk’s village of Yubileiny. There is a Mashchinskaya mine in the vicinity and a storage facility with ammonal and trotyl, which are used in the mining sector," he told TASS.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Iraq’s prime minister held talks Sunday with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus during the first trip of its kind to the war-torn country since the 12-year conflict began.

The two leaders told reporters that they discussed fighting drugs, the return of Syrian refugees and the imperative of lifting Western sanctions imposed in Syria. They also talked about Israel’s strikes on the war-torn country and water shortages in the Euphrates River that cuts through both countries because of projects in Turkey.

JAKARTA, Jul 16 (NNN-ANTARA) – The series of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers’ meetings, attended by senior Chinese diplomat, Wang Yi, have sent out three positive messages, a Chinese official said here yesterday.

First, the meetings saw a more peaceful atmosphere. The ASEAN-China Foreign Ministers’ Meeting, held in a friendly and harmonious way, focused on practical cooperation.

KYIV, July 16 (Reuters) - Fighting in eastern Ukraine has "somewhat intensified" as Ukrainian and Russian forces clash in at least three areas on the eastern front, a senior Ukrainian defence official said on Sunday.

Separately, the Ukrainian military indicated it had taken control of part of a southeastern village in Donetsk region, near a string of small settlements Ukraine recaptured in June.

"The enemy made an unsuccessful attempt to regain lost positions in the northern part of Staromayorske," the general staff of Ukraine's armed forces said in a regular update.

ISLAMABAD, July 16 (Xinhua) -- The Special Economic Zone (SEZ) under the framework of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Pakistan's southern Sindh province is to ensure the socio-economic development of Pakistan, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said.

The SEZ will pave the way for industrialization in Pakistan by enhancing public-private collaboration and business-to-business cooperation between Chinese and Pakistani businessmen, Zardari said while speaking at a ceremony held in the Dhabeji SEZ in Sindh on Saturday.

BUENOS AIRES, July 16 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — A total of 17 Argentine provinces are under yellow alert due to weather forecasts heralding extremely cold temperatures, the National Meteorological Service (SMN) announced.

The SMN also said these temperatures reaching -10.8 degrees Celsius in El Calafate, Santa Cruz (south), and -8.9 degrees in La Quiaca, Jujuy (north), might be dangerous for children and elderly or chronically ill people.

MADRID (AP) — More favorable weather conditions have helped firefighters slow down the advance of a wildfire on La Palma in Spain’s Canary Islands that has forced the evacuation of more than 4,000 residents, authorities said Sunday.

The blaze, which started Saturday, has affected an area of about 4,600 hectares (11,300 acres) and burned some 20 houses and buildings.

Authorities urged people not to go near the area on the northwest side of the island.

PRISTINA, July 16 (Reuters) - Kosovo has bought a batch of Turkish-made Bayraktar drones, its leader said on Sunday, at a time when it faces unrest in the north where ethnic Serbs refuse to recognise Pristina authorities.

In a Facebook post showing him in front of a drone with his defence minister, Prime Minister Albin Kurti said latest security spending was making the country safer.

(AP) --- The first phase of Ukraine’s counteroffensive to recapture Russian-occupied territory began weeks ago without fanfare. Apart from claiming that its troops are edging forward, Kyiv has not offered much detail on how it’s going.

Taking place mostly out of sight of impartial observers, the fighting in eastern and southern Ukraine pits troops equipped with new Western-supplied weapons against Kremlin forces that spent months digging formidable defenses and honing tactics.

Here’s a look at what’s happening after more than 16 months of war: