THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — An international center opened Monday at the Hague to support those building cases against senior Russian leaders for the crime of aggression resulting from the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

The International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine is the latest step in concerted worldwide efforts to hold the Russian leadership criminally responsible for its war against Ukraine last year, triggering Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.

JERUSALEM, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Israeli researchers have developed a method that makes cancer cells to self-produce toxins and thus "commit suicide," Tel Aviv University (TAU) in central Israel said in a statement on Sunday.

In a study published in the journal Theranostics, TAU researchers "for the first time in the world" encoded a toxin produced by bacteria into messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules and delivered these particles directly to cancer cells, the statement added.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Seeking a valid U.S. passport for that 2023 trip? Buckle up, wishful traveler, for a very different journey before you step anywhere near an airport.

A much-feared backup of U.S passport applications has smashed into a wall of government bureaucracy as worldwide travel rebounds toward record pre-pandemic levels — with too few humans to handle the load. The result, say aspiring travelers in the U.S. and around the world, is a maddening pre-travel purgatory defined, at best, by costly uncertainty.

WASHINGTON (AP) — New Hampshire is in open rebellion. Georgia is all but out.

South Carolina and Nevada are on board but face stiff Republican pushback. Michigan’s compliance may mean having to cut the state legislative session short, despite Democrats controlling both chambers and the governor’s mansion.

Then there’s Iowa, which is looking for ways to still go first without violating party rules.

02 July 2023; MEMO: Spain made a commitment to "promote EU-Turkiye relations with a positive agenda" as part of its presidency program, the Foreign Ministry said on Sunday, reports Anadolu Agency.

According to the EU Presidency Program released by the Spanish Foreign Ministry, the country aims "to foster mutually beneficial collaborations, including the resumption of EU and Turkiye High-Level Dialogue meetings, with a constructive approach towards Turkiye."

03 July 2023; MEMO: A US judge accused of making racist remarks and "witness interference and tampering" has been removed from his judicial duties in Cook County, Illinois.

Attorney Matthew Fakhoury said in a recent lawsuit that Judge William Hooks made inappropriate and racist comments about Arab-American men in a meeting with prosecutors in January.

New Delhi, July 3 (PTI) The "radical, extremist" Khalistani thinking is not good for India or its partner countries like the US, the UK, Canada and Australia, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Monday.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a BJP outreach campaign, Jaishankar said the government will raise the issue of pro-Khalistan posters that were part of a rally held recently in Canada.

BEIRUT, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Two men were shot dead in a disputed area in northern Lebanon, the Lebanese Army announced in a statement on Sunday, confirming earlier media reports.

The two young men, Haitham Tawk and Malek Tok, were found shot dead in Qornet al-Sawda, a disputed area between Bcharre and Bkaasafrine in northern Lebanon, the state-run National News Agency reported on Saturday evening.

Seven other civilians were also wounded in the conflict, the L'Orient Today news website quoted locals in Bcharre as saying.

03 July 2023; MEMO: The Israeli occupation army raided houses in the Jenin camp, killing three  Palestinians, in the early hours of today.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced the deaths of Samih Abu Al-Wafa, Aws Hani Hanou, and Hasim Abu Theeba, adding that 13 others were injured, three seriously.

PARIS (AP) — The grandmother of the French teenager shot dead by police during a traffic stop pleaded Sunday for rioters to stop after five nights of unrest, while authorities expressed outrage at an attack on a suburban mayor’s home that injured family members.

The grandmother of 17-year-old Nahel, identified only as Nadia, said in a telephone interview with French news broadcaster BFM TV, “Don’t break windows, buses ... schools. We want to calm things down.”

APATZINGAN, Mexico (AP) — The drug cartel violence that citizen self-defense leader Hipolito Mora gave his life fighting flared anew on Sunday, just one day after he was buried, as shootings and road blockades hit the city of Apatzingan, a regional hub in Mexico’s hot lands.

Roads in and out of Apatzingan were blocked Sunday morning by trucks and buses pulled across the road by cartel gunmen, as the vehicles’ owners stood by helplessly.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli drones struck targets in a militant stronghold in the occupied West Bank early Monday and hundreds of troops were deployed in the area, an incursion that resembled the wide-scale military operations carried out during the second Palestinian uprising two decades ago. Palestinian health officials said at least five Palestinians were killed.