JERUSALEM (AP) — Thousands of Israeli protesters took to the streets on Tuesday and blocked highways leading to Jerusalem, Haifa and Tel Aviv as part of countrywide demonstrations against the government’s planned judicial overhaul that has divided the nation.

The demonstrations came the morning after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s parliamentary coalition gave initial approval to a bill to limit the Supreme Court’s oversight powers, pressing forward with contentious proposed changes to the judiciary despite widespread opposition.

VILNIUS, July 11 (Reuters) - NATO leaders agreed on Tuesday that Ukraine's future lies within the alliance but they stopped short of handing Kyiv the invitation or timetable for accession it sought, a stance that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had earlier criticised as "absurd".

The leaders met at a summit in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius as a Ukrainian counteroffensive against the Russian invasion forces occupying parts of the country was proceeding more slowly than Kyiv had hoped.

MOSCOW, July 11. /TASS/: Kiev hyped up its counteroffensive so much that many countries expected to see substantial results by the start of the NATO summit in Vilnius on July 11, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said.

"I think they have touted and hyped up this counteroffensive issue so much that practically, if not half the world, then a third of it for sure, was waiting for the 11th to take stock of some results such as what was achieved by this widely touted and anticipated thing they called a ‘strategic’ counteroffensive," he said.

TOKYO, July 11 (Xinhua) -- Fisheries associations in Fukushima Prefecture said Tuesday they remain opposed to releasing radioactive water from the crippled nuclear power plant into the sea despite the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)'s safety assurance on the plan, local media reported.

QUITO, July 11 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Ten people were killed and ten injured, including children, in two shootings Sunday in Guayaquil, the Ecuadoran port city in the grips of a bloody war between drug trafficking gangs, officials said.

The shootings took place in two poor neighborhoods of the city that has seen at least three similar attacks since April.

The first shooting killed four people and injured 10 — including children aged 2, 13 and 14 — in Siete Lagos in the south of the city, the prosecutor’s office said on Monday.

11 July 2023; MEMO: Saudi Arabia's Energy Minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, met with his French counterpart, Agnes Pannier-Runacher, in Riyadh on 8 July, Gulf Business reports.

According to the report, the two signed a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen their cooperation in energy, with a focus on clean energy from renewable resources.

COPENHAGEN/OSLO, July 11 (Reuters) - A volcanic eruption in Iceland close to the capital Reykjavik is slowing and gas pollution is easing, experts said, but residents should still keep clear of the volcano which has been spewing out toxic gas.

The eruption has decreased considerably, the Icelandic Met Office, Vedur, said on Tuesday, adding people should keep out of the restricted eruption site.

NEW DELHI (AP) — Schools in New Delhi were closed on Monday after heavy monsoon rains battered the Indian capital and caused landslides and flash floods in the country’s north, killing at least 15 people over the last three days.

The torrential rain over the weekend left parts of New Delhi overflowing with water that submerged roads and stranded residents. The northern hill states were the worst affected, with 10 people killed in flash floods and landslides in Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand states, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.

July 11 (Reuters) - As rebellious Wagner forces drove north toward Moscow on June 24, a contingent of military vehicles diverted east on a highway in the direction of a fortified Russian army base that holds nuclear weapons, according to videos posted online and interviews with local residents.

ISLAMABAD, July 11 (APP): Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday thanked the Saudi leadership for their generous and unwavering support for Pakistan, which, he said, was particularly instrumental in securing the deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The prime minister was talking to Ambassador of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Nawaf bin Saeed Ahmad Al-Malkiy who called on him, PM Office Media Wing said in a press release.  

JAKARTA, July 11 (Xinhua) -- Foreign ministers from 10 ASEAN countries and Timor-Leste, and ASEAN partner countries discussed challenges faced by the bloc and its cooperation with other countries at the 56th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' Meeting and Post Ministerial Conference (AMM-PMC) which kicked off here Tuesday.

UNITED NATIONS, July 11. /TASS/: Russia will support only its version of an extension of the cross-border aid mechanism in Syria, and there will be no technical extension, Russian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya said on Tuesday.