GUWAHATI, India (AP) — Tens of thousands of people have taken shelter in government-run relief camps as heavy monsoon rains batter villages in India’s northeast, and one person has died in the floodwaters this week, a government relief agency said Friday.

Assam state is on red alert and bracing for more downpours this weekend by evacuating people from low-lying areas.

KYIV, June 23 (Reuters) - Ukraine's armed forces have halted a Russian offensive towards the cities of Kupiansk and Lyman in the east of the country, and are advancing in the south, a senior Ukrainian defence official said on Friday.

"We had very fierce battles in the Kupiansk and Lyman directions, but our soldiers stopped the enemy there," Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar told Ukrainian television.

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.

MOSCOW, June 23. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin is aware of the situation that is unfolding around Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the private military company Wagner, and the necessary measures are being taken, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.

"President Putin has been briefed on all events around Prigozhin. The necessary measures are being taken," he said.

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Serbia on Friday reiterated a threat to intervene militarily in its former province of Kosovo if NATO-led peacekeepers there fail to protect minority Serbs from what Belgrade called the terrorist threat of Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian authorities.

ADEN, Jun 23 (NNN-SABA) – Two Yemeni military staff were killed yesterday, in a bombing attack, carried out by the militants of the Yemen-based al-Qaeda branch, in the country’s southern province of Abyan, a security official said.

The incident occurred when the al-Qaeda militants planted an improvised explosive device, targeting a military ambulance of the government forces, in Abyan’s district of Mudiyah, causing a large explosion, the local security official said.

WASHINGTON (AP) —The search for the missing submersible on an expedition to view the wreckage of the Titanic passed the critical 96-hour mark Thursday when breathable air could have run out, a grim moment in the intense effort to save the five people aboard.

21 June 2023; MEMO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has blamed the colonial mindset for turning the Mediterranean Sea into a giant refugee graveyard. Erdogan made his comment on World Refugee Day.

21 June 2023; MEMO: The Kremlin, on Wednesday, said that the UN is unable to exert necessary influence on the West in order to fulfil their obligations under the Black Sea Grain Initiative, Anadolu Agency reports.

June 22 (Reuters) - The U.S. Coast Guard on Thursday said a debris field was discovered within the search area by a remotely operated vehicle near the Titanic.

Experts within the unified command were evaluating the information, the Coast Guard said.

22 June 2023; MEMO: Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday that Palestinians have the right to defend themselves against crimes committed by illegal settlers and the Israeli occupation army.

In a phone call with Turmus Ayya Mayor Lafi Deeb, Abbas offered his condolences following the murder of 25-year-old Palestinian Omar Qattin.

21 June 2023; MEMO: Israelis opposed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's proposed overhaul of the judiciary gained ground on Wednesday with the election of one of their advocates to a post with a degree of clout over a key panel for selecting judges, Reuters reports.

Ex-prosecutor, Amit Becher, was voted Chairman of the Israel Bar Association after an unusually public feud with a candidate promoted by members of the country's nationalist-religious camp.