GENEVA, Jul 06 (APP):Pakistan, on behalf of the OIC, has said that the reason for seeking an urgent debate in the UN Human Rights Council on the burning of a Holy Quran outside a mosque in Sweden was to underscore the need for adoption of effective national legal measures to put an end to such provocative acts.

The desecration of the holy book, which took place outside the Swedish capital Stockholm’s main mosque last week, was carried out by a man during a protest authorized by the police, sparking off a global outrage and diplomatic backlash.

NEW YORK, July 6. /TASS/: Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky has said that he told US and European leaders that Ukraine wanted to launch its counteroffensive earlier but it needed more weapons for that.

CRANDON, Wis. (AP) — State officials are investigating how eight people became trapped upside down on a roller coaster — some of them for more than three hours — at a festival in Wisconsin.

The roller coaster’s cars got stuck near the top of a loop around 1:30 p.m. Sunday at the Crandon International Offroad Raceway. Rescue workers arrived to find eight passengers hanging upside down from their safety harnesses. Firefighters used ladder trucks to reach them, securing each one before releasing their over-the-shoulder safety bars, the Crandon Fire Department said.

BEIJING, Jul 6 (NNN-XINHUA) – Wang Yi, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee, met with Yohei Kono, president of the Japanese Association for the Promotion of International Trade (JAPIT), in Beijing today.

Noting that, this year marks the 45th anniversary of the signing of the China-Japan Treaty of Peace and Friendship, Wang, also a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, said that, bilateral relations are at a new crucial juncture.

OTTAWA, July 6 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took to Twitter to try to convince American pop star Taylor Swift to add some stops on her "Eras Tour" in Canada after she announced 14 new dates in Europe.

"It's me, hi. I know places in Canada would love to have you. So, don't make it another cruel summer. We hope to see you soon," Trudeau said, replying late on Wednesday to an earlier tweet by Swift announcing the new tour dates.

SYDNEY, July 6 (Reuters) - Australian Home Minister Clare O'Neil on Thursday called Donald Trump Jr. a "big baby", after the son of the former U.S. president cancelled a planned speaking tour.

The younger Trump, who had been booked on a three-day tour of Australia that was scheduled to begin in Sydney on Sunday, cancelled the trip on Wednesday, with organisers suggesting the reason was visa issues.

MOSCOW, July 6. /TASS/: The extension of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s term of office for another year will not affect relations between Russia and the alliance because they are non-existent, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.

"With respect to whether that (the extension of Stoltenberg’s term - TASS) will or will not influence relations with Russia, it won’t. That’s because Russia and NATO don’t have any relations," she said at a news conference.

RAMALLAH, July 6 (Xinhua) -- Engulfed by sadness, Om Hussain Dibaba, an elderly Palestinian woman, and the other nine members of her family sit in one of the courtyards of a hospital in the West Bank city of Jenin, without knowing their fate.

"Without any prior alarm, my family and I became displaced," the 62-year-old woman spoke to Xinhua as she clung to two of her grandchildren's hands, referring to the clashes between the Israeli army and Palestinian militants in the city that have stripped her family of any chance to straighten their lives out.

BOGOTA, July 6 (NNN-MERCCOPRESS) — Colombia’s main rebel group National Liberation Army (ELN) ordered its forces to stop “offensive military actions” as of July 6.

However, in a message posted on the rebel group’s website, its members were advised to be prepared to “respond to threats or attacks by any armed group against our units or against the civilian population.”

06 July 2023; MEMO: The Palestinian resistance movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad yesterday said they considered the Israeli occupation army's withdrawal from the city of Jenin and its refugee camp in the northern occupied West Bank a "declaration of failure" and a sign of victory for the Palestinians, Anadolu reported.

This came in separate statements issued by the two movements this morning after the military operation came to an end.

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Two firefighters were killed battling a blaze that began when cars caught fire deep inside a cargo ship carrying 5,000 cars at a New Jersey port, Newark’s fire chief said Thursday.

Responding firefighters found five to seven vehicles already on fire when they reached the 10th floor of the cargo ship at Port Newark around 9:30 p.m. Wednesday night. The blaze quickly extended to the 11th and 12th floors, and as firefighters were pushed back by the intense heat, two of them were lost, Fire Chief Rufus Jackson said at a news conference.

MINSK, July 6 (Reuters) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko dismissed on Thursday a description that he was "Europe's last dictator", saying that he was not a dictator but that if he were, he would certainly not be the last.

Lukashenko, 68, has ruled Belarus with an iron fist since 1994 and in an interview with Reuters in 2012 had relished his notoriety as Europe’s last dictator.