RIYADH, Jun 28 (NNN-SPA) – Saudi Minister of Hajj and Umrah, Tawfiq al-Rabiah, announced, more than 1.8 million worshippers from over 150 countries are performing the Hajj this year.

The number of pilgrims from Arab countries reached more than 346,000, or 21 percent of the total, the General Authority for Statistics said, yesterday.

Among the pilgrims were more than one million from Asian countries, excluding Arab nations, making up 63.5 percent of the total, while nearly 223,000 pilgrims, or 13.4 percent of the total, came from African countries, excluding Arab nations.

BRUSSELS (AP) — As rescue efforts in the Mediterranean Sea flagged last week, and bodies were found more frequently than survivors from among the more than 500 people missing after an overcrowded fishing trawler sank, the European Commission’s president was asked for her thoughts.

“It is horrible, what happened, and the more urgent is that we act,” Ursula von der Leyen told reporters at the headquarters of the European Union’s executive branch in Brussels.

BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Wednesday that he has called a meeting of senior officials from Turkey, Sweden and Finland on July 6 to try to overcome Turkish objections to Sweden joining the military organization.

The meeting is a last-ditch effort by Stoltenberg to have the Nordic country standing among NATO’s ranks as a member at a major summit next month. It would be a highly symbolic moment and another indication of how Russia’s war in Ukraine is driving countries to join the Western alliance.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian authorities arrested on Wednesday a man they accused of helping Russia direct a missile strike that killed at least 10 people, including three teenagers, at a popular pizza restaurant in east Ukraine.

The Tuesday evening attack on Kramatorsk wounded 61 other people, Ukraine’s National Police said, in the latest bombardment of a Ukrainian city, a tactic Russia has used heavily in the 16-month-old war.

NEW YORK (AP) — A U.S. Marine veteran pleaded not guilty Wednesday to revised charges in the fatal chokehold of a man who was behaving erratically on a New York City subway train.

Daniel Penny, 24, pleaded not guilty to second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in the May 1 death of Jordan Neely, a former Michael Jackson impersonator who was shouting and begging for money when Penny pinned him to the floor of the moving subway car with the help of two other passengers and held him in a chokehold for more than three minutes.

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese regulators began a final inspection Wednesday before treated radioactive wastewater is released from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean.

The inspection began a day after plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings installed the last piece of equipment needed for the release — the outlet of the undersea tunnel dug to discharge the wastewater 1 kilometer (a thousand yards) offshore.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — A crackdown in Honduras on gangs in the nation’s prisons is eerily similar to one carried out last year in neighboring El Salvador by President Nayib Bukele, observers said Tuesday.

Like authorities in El Salvador, police in Honduras who launched a prison sweep Monday have distributed dramatic videos of tattooed inmates being frog-marched around, though their videos have lacked Bukele’s slick production values and media savvy.

June 28 (Reuters) - U.S. technology company Extreme Networks Inc said last year it had suspended all business activities in Russia to show solidarity with the people of Ukraine "living under attack."

But Reuters has found that, as the publicly-traded U.S. firm was unwinding its Russia operations, its most senior manager in the region did not stop doing business there.

HELSINKI (AP) — The deputy mayor of Finland’s capital is facing possible legal action, and calls for him to pay compensation for damages and to resign, after he was caught red-handed spray-painting graffiti in a railway tunnel last weekend.

The Finnish Transport Infrastructure Agency told public broadcaster YLE on Wednesday that cleaning up graffiti illegally painted by Paavo Arhinmäki, one of the four deputy mayors of Helsinki, cost the city around 3,500 euros ($3,830).

KABUL, June 28 (Xinhua) -- The Afghan people are optimistic about forging ties with China following the withdrawal of U.S.-led forces, said a recent commentary by Afghanistan's Bakhtar News Agency.

The commentary mooted several fields which are potentially collaborative between Afghanistan and China, including construction, agriculture and education.

"The Afghan people recognize that China can sincerely cooperate with them in various sectors and turn their long-standing dreams into reality," the news agency said.

ISLAMABAD, Jun 28 (NNN-APP) – Pakistan will hold a three-day international conference in July, to promote tourism in the country, local media reported, today.

The report quoted Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Gandhara Tourism, Ramesh Kumar, as saying that, a national tourism policy has been finalised and would be announced at the conference starting from Jul 11, in order to attract tourists from abroad.

FREETOWN, Sierra Leone (AP) — Sierra Leonean President Julius Maada Bio has won a second term in office, receiving 56.17% of ballots cast and narrowly clearing the threshold for avoiding a runoff in the West African nation, electoral officials said Tuesday.

Main opposition candidate Samura Kamara immediately disputed the results showing he had received 41.16% of the vote in Saturday’s election.