24 June 2023; MEMO: Morocco will delay a summit it is hosting between Israel and Arab states that have signed "Abraham Accords" peace pacts, its Foreign Minister said on Friday, amid rising strife in the West Bank, Reuters reports.

WASHINGTON, June 25 (Reuters) - The unprecedented challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin by Wagner fighters has exposed fresh "cracks" in the strength of his leadership that may take weeks or months to play out, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Sunday.

Blinken and members of the U.S. Congress said in a series of television interviews that Saturday's turmoil in Russia has weakened Putin in ways that could aid Ukraine's counteroffensive against Russian forces within its territory while benefiting Russia's neighbors, including Poland and the Baltic states.

(AP) --- Russian government troops withdrew from the streets of Moscow and people flocked to parks and cafes Sunday following a short-lived revolt by mercenary forces that weakened President Vladimir Putin and raised questions about his ability to wage war in Ukraine.

JERUSALEM, June 25 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday praised the thwarting of what he said was an Iranian attack against Israeli targets in Cyprus.

A statement from Netanyahu's office did not give any more details, but Israeli news website Ynet, without disclosing its sources, said an attack had been planned against Israelis staying in the city of Limassol.

Cyprus declined to comment on whether an attack had been foiled.

SAGINAW, Mich. (AP) — A 51-year-old woman and a 19-year-old man were slain and a dozen others wounded during a shooting at a large street party in Michigan that was promoted on social media.

The shooting occurred around midnight Saturday in Saginaw, about 102 miles (164 kilometers) northwest of Detroit, state police said.

Police initially said about 200 people were in the area of the party and that officers had been dispersing the crowd prior to the shooting, MLive.com reported.

TASS, June 25: Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he keeps the situation of the special operation under control around the clock.

"Of course, I pay priority attention [to the special military operation]," he told journalist Pavel Zarubin. "This is how the day begins and this is how it ends," Putin pointed out during an interview with the "Moscow.Kremlin.Putin" TV program, recorded on June 21.

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Gunmen shot and killed a member of Pakistan’s minority Sikh community in an overnight attack in the northwestern city of Peshawar, police said Sunday.

Gauher Khan, a local officer, said the attack on Manmohan Singh, 35, appeared to be a targeted killing. A police investigation continues, Khan said, into the motive.

Khan said the assailants opened fire at Singh while he was returning home from a suburban area. The assailants fled the scene.

ANKARA, June 25 (Reuters) - Sweden must stop protests by supporters of outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Stockholm to get a green light on its NATO membership bid, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told NATO's Secretary-General in a phone call on Sunday.

Erdogan told Stoltenberg that Turkey had a constructive attitude, but Sweden's change of terrorism laws to meet demands from Ankara was "meaningless" while PKK supporters hold protests in the country, the Turkish presidency said in a statement.

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — An exit poll from Greece’s second election in five weeks indicates the conservative New Democracy party has won by a landslide, gaining enough parliamentary seats to form a government for a second four-year term.

The poll projects Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ party gaining 40-44% of the vote, with his main rival, the left-wing Syriza party suffering a crushing defeat with just 16-19% projected support, even worse than his 20% in the last elections in May.

CARACAS, June 22 (Xinhua) -- Venezuela denounced the "negative impact" of sanctions on the development of Caribbean countries, an official said Thursday, calling for more support for climate-vulnerable countries in the region.

Raul Li Causi, Venezuela's deputy foreign affairs minister for the Caribbean, made the remarks during the annual meeting of the board of governors of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) held in Saint Lucia.

23 June 2023; MEMO: An Algerian court on Wednesday handed five year prison terms to former Prime Minister Noureddine Bedoui and former Health Minister Abdelmalek Boudiaf, and fined them one million dinars ($7,383), the state news agency said, according to Reuters.

The sentences relate to a corruption case.

BEIRUT, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Hassan Salloum, a Lebanese citizen, spends hours walking among the herds of livestock in the al-Marj market in eastern Lebanon, looking for an affordable sheep to sacrifice, as the Eid al-Adha is only a few days away.

However, he balked at the "shocking and insane prices" of a sheep, knowing it was nearly impossible for an average household to buy one to perform the yearly ritual of slaughtering livestock for the Eid festival, the man told Xinhua.