MINSK, July 6 (Reuters) - Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday that the mutinous chief of Russia's Wagner group was still in Russia with thousands of fighters, but dismissed speculation that President Vladimir Putin would have Yevgeny Prigozhin killed.

Lukashenko helped broker a deal to end last month's mutiny, the gravest challenge to Putin in his 23 years in power, under which Prigozhin was supposed to stand down his mercenaries and move to Belarus in exchange for Putin dropping charges.

МOSCOW, July 6. /TASS/: Any agreements that the Kiev regime makes with other countries to secure military aid will not have an impact on the outcome of the special military operation and the situation on the frontline today confirms this, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — At the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, the aging men known by their serial numbers arrived at the meeting shackled. Every single one told the visitor — for many the first independent person they had talked to in 20 years — “You came too late.”

But they still talked, about the scant contacts with their families, their many health problems, the psychological and physical scars of the torture and abuse they experienced, and their hopes of leaving and reuniting with loved ones.

TOLUCA, Mexico (AP) — A violent drug cartel is suspected of leaving a severed human leg found hanging from a pedestrian bridge Wednesday in Toluca, just west of Mexico City. Before the day was out, parts of at least two bodies had turned up around the city.

At the bridge, the trunk of the body was left on the street below, near the city’s center, along with handwritten signs signed by the Familia Michoacana cartel.

Kanpur: Humidity has been bothering the residents. Intermittent rains are giving relief but there is no end to the unbearable condition.

The students coming from the school during the afternoon straight go to take a shower owing to the hot and humid weather.

The rainy season may continue till July 11. Times of sun and clouds go with thunderstorms in a couple of spots, as the weather reports today.

At the same time, given the rising water level of the Ganges here, an alert has been issued regarding floods.

EL PASO, Texas (AP) — A white Texas gunman who killed 23 people at a Walmart in 2019 returns to court Wednesday for sentencing in a mass shooting that targeted Hispanic shoppers in the border city of El Paso.

Patrick Crusius, 24, is set to receive multiple life sentences after pleading guilty to federal hate crime and weapons charges in one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history. Although the federal government did not seek the death penalty, Texas prosecutors have not taken lethal injection off the table under a separate case in state court.

04 July 2023; MEMO: Russia, on Tuesday, restated a demand for its state agricultural bank to be reconnected to the global SWIFT payments system and said it would not accept a reported compromise proposal, Reuters reports.

With 13 days remaining until expiry of the deal that has allowed Ukraine to export grain from its Black Sea ports despite Russia's invasion, Moscow said there had been no progress on any of its key demands, including the banking issue.

05 July 2023; MEMO: The UN Security Council will convene on Friday to discuss the deadly escalation following Israeli attacks on the Occupied West Bank city of Jenin, Anadolu Agency reports.

The 15-member Council will meet in closed consultations, said the UK mission to the UN, which holds the organ's rotating presidency for July, on Twitter.

The meeting was requested by the United Arab Emirates.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden plans to host Sweden’s prime minister at the White House on Wednesday in a show of solidarity as the United States presses for the Nordic nation’s entry into NATO, a week before the alliance’s summit.

Biden and Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson will “review our growing security cooperation and reaffirm their view that Sweden should join NATO as soon as possible,” the White House said a statement announcing the meeting. The leaders also will discuss Russia’s war in Ukraine and matters involving China.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House was briefly evacuated Sunday evening while President Joe Biden was at Camp David after the Secret Service discovered suspicious powder in a common area of the West Wing, and a preliminary test showed the substance was cocaine, two law enforcement officials said Tuesday.

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The U.S. citizenship test is being updated, and some immigrants and advocates worry the changes will hurt test-takers with lower levels of English proficiency.

The naturalization test is one of the final steps toward citizenship — a monthslong process that requires legal permanent residency for years before applying.

04 July 2023; MEMO: The French judiciary has transferred the seized assets of Lebanon's Central Bank Governor, Riad Salameh, and his associates, to the Lebanese state, the media office of Lebanon's caretaker Justice Minister, Henry Khoury, said on Tuesday, Reuters reports.