KATHMANDU, Jul 11 (NNN-XINHUA) – A helicopter carrying five foreign passengers and the pilot, crashed in a mountain district of Nepal today, but the fate of those aboard was not known yet, a local official said.

The ill-fated chopper, belonging to the private Manang Air, lost contact with the ground, 15 minutes after taking off from Surke, in Solukhumbu district, for the capital city of Kathmandu, Solukhumbu’s chief district officer, Basant Bhattarai, told Xinhua.

JAKARTA, July 11 (Reuters) - Indonesia's coast guard said on Tuesday it seized an Iranian-flagged supertanker suspected of involvement in the illegal transshipment of crude oil, and vowed to toughen maritime patrols.

The MT Arman 114 was carrying 272,569 metric tons of light crude oil, valued at 4.6 trillion rupiah ($304 million), when it was seized last week, the Indonesian authorities said.

The Very Large Crude Carrier (VLCC) was suspected of transferring oil to another vessel without a permit on Friday, the Southeast Asian nation's maritime security agency said.

KUALA LUMPUR, July 11 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia is seeking concept proposals from local and international firms and consortiums to reactivate its Kuala Lumpur-Singapore high-speed rail (KL-SG HSR) project.

VILNIUS, July 11. /TASS/: NATO countries have adopted a long-term program of military assistance to Ukraine and agreed to set up the Ukraine-NATO Council, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday.

"Today, Allies have agreed a package of three elements to bring Ukraine closer to NATO," he told a news conference on the results of the summit’s first day.

10 July 2023; MEMO: Lebanon's caretaker Premier, Najib Mikati, will not extend the term of sitting Central Bank Governor, Riad Salameh, when it ends later this month, the Prime Minister's office said on Monday, Reuters reports.

BRUSSELS (AP) — Protesters and legislators converged on the European Union parliament Tuesday as the bloc prepared a cliffhanger vote on protecting its threatened nature and shielding it from disruptive environmental change, in a test of the EU’s global climate credentials.

SYDNEY, Jul 11 (NNN-AAP) – Australian mining company, Illawarra Coal Holdings Pty. Ltd., has been ordered to pay out almost 2.9 million Australian dollars (about 1.9 million U.S. dollars), as it drained surface water without a licence over five years.

In a statement released today, the Natural Resources Access Regulator (NRAR) of New South Wales said that, the underground coal mine is at Kembla Heights, west of Wollongong, and the mine’s operations caused the incidental take of surface water without a licence from 2018 to 2023.

11 July 2023; MEMO: The Palestinian Fatah movement said yesterday that Israel is attempting to cover up the "failure" of its military operation in Jenin by making "fake allegations" of offering the Palestinian Authority (PA) economic facilitations.

"We stress our rejection of security-oriented solutions and so-called economic facilitations," Fatah spokesman in Gaza, Mundhir Al-Hayek, said in a statement.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) — Lightning strikes over the weekend triggered more than 100 new wildfires in British Columbia, raising the total above 300 and leading authorities to order on Monday a ban on campfires for most of the province.

The wildfire danger was high to extreme across most of British Colombia. The province’s Wildfire Service said almost 200 of the fires were ranked as out of control.

TOKYO, July 11 (Xinhua) -- Tokyo stocks closed mixed on Tuesday with the benchmark Nikkei index up marginally after five straight sessions of losses, as the market was lifted by investors scooping up chip-related stocks.

The 225-issue Nikkei Stock Average rose 13.84 points, or 0.04 percent, from Monday to finish at 32,203.57.

The broader Topix index, meanwhile, closed 6.93 points, or 0.31 percent, lower at 2,236.40.

MOSCOW, July 11. /TASS/: The inflation level in Russia is currently among the lowest across the world, Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Tuesday at the meeting on economic issues.

"Inflation remains moderate. It stood at 2.9% from January to early July, which is much lower than last-year values," Mishustin said. Inflation in annual terms is not above 3.5%, he noted.

"This is among the lowest indicators globally at present," the prime minister stressed.

SEOUL, Jul 11 (NNN-YONHAP) – One of the subway lines in South Korea’s capital, Seoul, was temporarily suspended owing to heavy rain.

Some sections of Subway Line 1 halted operation at about 3:56 p.m. local time, but resumed running around 15 minutes later.

Some of the roads in Seoul were flooded and blocked, as torrential rain hit the country, entering the rainy season.

The weather agency issued a heavy rain warning for the Seoul metropolitan area, and the south-eastern port city of Busan, and a heavy rain advisory for other regions.