ROME, July 2 (Xinhua) -- Qu Dongyu was re-elected as director-general of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) here on Sunday during the ongoing 43rd session of the FAO Conference.

Qu was first elected in June 2019 to head the UN agency and is the first Chinese national to serve in the position.

WASHINGTON, July 1 (Reuters) - Gay Republicans criticized as "homophobic" a video posted by Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis' campaign highlighting rival Donald Trump's past statements in support of gay rights, and the former president declined at a rally on Saturday to respond to the attack.

Florida Governor DeSantis' campaign posted the video on Twitter late on Friday, saying it marked the end of a month of LGBTQ+ pride celebrations.

BALTIMORE (AP) — Gunfire erupted at a block party in Baltimore on Sunday — killing two people, wounding 28 and leaving an extensive crime scene that marred the U.S. holiday weekend, police said. Three of the wounded were in critical condition.

Baltimore Police Department Acting Commissioner Richard Worley told reporters there were a total of 30 victims during a press conference at the scene.

The shooting took place just after 12:30 a.m. at a block party in the Brooklyn Homes area in the southern part of the city, Worley said.

PARIS (AP) — Young rioters in France clashed with police into early Sunday and targeted a mayor’s home with a burning car, injuring members of his family, as the country saw a fifth night of unrest after the police killing of a teenager. However, overall violence appeared to lessen from previous nights.

Police made 719 more arrests, bringing the total number of people detained to more than 3,000 following a mass security deployment aimed at quelling France’s worst social upheaval in years.

Tehran, IRNA – An informed source has said that the Islamic Republic of Iran is not going to send a new ambassador to Sweden due to the sacrilege of the Holy Quran in the European country.

The informed source at Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs told IRNA on Sunday that despite the fact that administrative procedures for sending a new Iranian ambassador to Sweden have been finished, as a result of the recent insult to the holy Quran in the Swedish capital city Stockholm, the ministry will not send a new envoy for now.

02 July 2023; MEMO: The EU on Saturday said burning a copy of the Quran or any other holy book "is offensive, and disrespectful and a clear act of provocation", Anadolu reports.

The remarks came after a person identified as Salwan Momika burned a copy of the Muslim holy book under police protection in front of a Stockholm mosque on Wednesday.

The desecration was timed to coincide with Eid al-Adha, one of the major Islamic religious festivals celebrated by Muslims worldwide.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — After a relative lull, Russia launched a drone attack early Sunday on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, officials said. It was the first such attack of the war in 12 days.

All of the Iranian-made Shahed exploding drones were detected and shot down, according to Serhii Popko, the head of the Kyiv city administration. In addition to the city itself, the surrounding Kyiv region was targeted. Kyiv regional Gov. Ruslan Kravchenko reported that one person was wounded by falling debris from a destroyed drone.

New Delhi, Jul 1 (PTI) A three-judge Supreme Court bench commenced hearing late on Saturday night the plea by social activist Teesta Setalvad seeking interim protection from arrest in a case of alleged fabrication of evidence to frame innocent people in 2002 post-Godhra riots cases.

A bench of Justices B R Gavai, A S Bopanna and Dipankar Datta is hearing the matter in a special sitting after a two-judge vacation bench differed on granting interim protection to Setalvad.

CAIRO, July 2 (Reuters) - Clashes between Sudan's army and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) intensified on Sunday, as the war in the country's capital and western regions entered its 12th week with no attempts in sight to bring a peaceful end to the conflict.

Air and artillery strikes as well as small arms fire could be heard, particularly in the city of Omdurman, as well as in the capital Khartoum, as the conflict deepens a humanitarian crisis and threatens to draw in other regional interests.

MOSCOW, July 1. /TASS/: The government in Kiev will be ready to hold talks to end the conflict in Ukraine if its armed forces gain control of the borders that the country believes are recognized internationally, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky said at a joint news conference with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Saturday.

BRASILIA, July 2 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Trade relations between Brazil and Argentina are improving with an overall volume of US$12.5 billion in the first five months of this year. Brazil exported US$7.5 billion worth of goods and imported US$ 5 billion from Argentina, according to the Comexstat portal of the Brazilian Ministry of Industry, Commerce, and Services.

Tehran, IRNA – The latest data released by the Energy Information Administration of the United States (EIA) shows that Iran has exported $19 billion of crude oil in the first five months of 2023.

The EIA said in its latest report said that the total oil export of 13 OPEC members in the five months to June 2023 was $293 billion.

The EIA has estimated Iran's total oil revenue in the mentioned period at $19 billion, which is equal to 6.5% of OPEC's total oil exports in the mentioned period.