SHANGHAI, Jun 29 (APP): Huawei Thursday announced at the 5G Advanced Forum during Mobile World Congress (MWC) Shanghai that it will launch a complete set of commercial 5.5G network equipment in 2024. Huawei’s Director and President of ICT Products and Solutions Yang Chaobin who made the announcement said the company intends for this launch to mark the beginning of the 5.5G era for the information communication technology industry.

UNITED NATIONS, June 29. /TASS/: The funds that the UN has raised so far this year to help the people in need across the globe make up just 20% of the amount that the US and its allies spent on weapons for Ukraine, Russia’s envoy to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said on Thursday.

28 June 2023; MEMO: The head of Sudan's army called on young men to defend their country, including by joining the army, and announced a ceasefire for the Eid al Adha holiday on Wednesday, when a rival force has also declared a truce, reports Reuters.

Multiple ceasefire deals have failed to stick in the conflict between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces that began April 15, including several brokered by Saudi Arabia and the United States at talks in Jeddah that were suspended last week.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Gen. Sergei Surovikin, the deputy commander of the Russian group of forces fighting in Ukraine, is believed to have been detained days after mercenaries staged a revolt inside Russia, two people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press on Thursday, citing U.S. and Ukrainian intelligence assessments.

The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) — A U.N. human rights expert said Wednesday that a specialized international force is needed to help fight gang violence in Haiti and that a weapons embargo should be implemented immediately.

William O’Neill, who was appointed expert on human rights in Haiti in April, spoke at the end of a 10-day trip during which he met with civil society leaders, government officials and victims of gang violence.

RIO DE JANEIRO, June 29. /TASS/: The Bolivian state-owned lithium company YLB and Uranium One, an affiliate of Russia’s Rosatom, signed an agreement on lithium carbonate production in the southwestern region of the country.

"The agreement unveils new prospects of long-term cooperation between Russia and Bolivia. This is the first large-scale overseas projects in the lithium production sphere for Rosatom," First Deputy CEO of the Russian company Kirill Komarov said.

27 June 2023; MEMO: Turkiye will continue standing against any action that could harm sanctity and status of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Occupied East Jerusalem, the country's President said on Tuesday, Anadolu Agency reports.

In a phone call, Recep Tayyip Erdogan extended his greetings to Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, for the Muslim holiday Eid Al-Adha, or Festival of Sacrifice, according to a statement by the Turkish Communications Directorate.

JENIN REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (AP) — At the funeral for Sadeel Naghniyeh, 15, her closest friends hoisted her dead body over their small shoulders. Wearing their school uniforms — tight black hijabs and oversized striped shirts — they staggered through the Palestinian refugee camp, crying and choking out the Islamic funeral prayers.

YEREVAN (Armenia), June 28 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Four Armenian separatist fighters were killed Wednesday in the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region by Azerbaijani fire, rebels said, as Baku and Yerevan held peace talks mediated by the United States.

Armenia and Azerbaijan have been locked in a decades-long conflict for control of the mountainous region in Azerbaijan, which is populated mainly by ethnic Armenians.

28 June 2023; MEMO: Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Wednesday condemned the burning of the Muslim holy book Quran in Sweden on the first day of Muslims' major festival of Eid al-Adha, Anadolu Agency reports.

"I condemn the vile action in #Sweden against our Holy Book, Quran, on the first day of the Eid-al-Adha!," Fidan wrote on Twitter.

"It is unacceptable to allow these islamophobe anti-Muslim actions under the pretext of freedom of expression," he added.

(AP) --- As life in Russia returned to normal after an armed rebellion by a mercenary group, tensions were rising in and around its neighbor Belarus, where the exiled leader of the force and some of its fighters were settling in.

Moving to Belarus was part of the deal the Kremlin struck with Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Wagner private military company, to end last weekend’s rebellion that rattled Russia’s leadership.

ARKADAG, Turkmenistan, June 29 (Reuters) - Turkmenistan opened a new, futuristic "smart" city on Thursday dedicated to its former president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov.

The city is named Arkadag, or protector, an unofficial title by which Turkmen media have long referred to Berdymukhamedov, who on Thursday marked his 66th birthday by travelling to the Muslim holy city of Mecca.

A source close to the government told Reuters the new city for 73,000 residents cost $3.3 billion to build and there were plans to spend as much again in the next few years.