UNITED NATIONS, Jun 21 (APP):The multiple restrictions placed on women and girls by the Taliban authorities are costing them “both domestic and international legitimacy” and are highly unpopular across Afghanistan, the top UN official based there said Wednesday.

UN Special Representative Roza Otunbayeva was briefing the Security Council on the dire situation facing the country and the international aid effort, with UN women workers among those now prevented by Taliban edicts from working.

21 June 2023; MEMO: Large numbers of extremist Israeli Jewish settlers attacked several Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday evening and attacked Palestinians, setting their cars, homes and fields on fire.

20 June 2023; MEMO: Israeli occupation forces stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque last night in occupied East Jerusalem and removed hundreds of Palestinian worshippers, including the Islamic Waqf guards.

Israeli soldiers then locked the gates leading to the mosque and prevented access to Palestinians arriving for night-long prayers to mark the first day of Dhu Al-Hijja, the final month in the Islamic calendar, reported Wafa news agency.

TRIPOLI, June 20 (Xinhua) -- The Libyan Illegal Immigration Control Department on Tuesday deported 165 female illegal immigrants to their home country of Nigeria.

"Some of them were arrested as they were begging on the streets and others were arrested during raids on criminal hideouts," the department's spokesman Haitham Belgasem told Xinhua, adding that more deportation flights would be arranged in the future.

The International Organization for Migration has said that a total of 7,477 illegal immigrants have been rescued and returned to Libya so far this year.

MOSCOW, June 21. /TASS/: Ukraine’s troops understand that they don’t stand a chance against heroic and courageous fighters of the Russian Armed Forces, President Vladimir Putin emphasized on Wednesday.

"Thanks to the courage and heroism of our fighters, thanks to the commanders’ readiness to repel any aggressive actions against Russia, I believe, the enemy doesn’t stand a chance. They understand that and this is why they have stalled now," Putin said at the meeting with military college graduates, answering a question from reporter Pavel Zarubin.

20 June 2023; MEMO: At least four Israeli settlers were killed and four others injured in a shooting attack in the Occupied West Bank on Tuesday, according to the military, Anadolu Agency reports.

In a statement, the army said two gunmen opened fire at a gas station adjacent to the settlement of Eli, between the cities of Ramallah and Nablus.

One of the attackers was shot dead by an Israeli settler, while the other fled the scene.

The Israeli army launched a manhunt for the other attacker.

BANGKOK, June 21 (NNN-Bernama) — Thailand’s Election Commission (EC) will call more witnesses to provide testimony on the inquiry into Pita Limjaroenrat, the front-runner for prime minister’s eligibility to compete in the general election last month.

The 42-year-old progressive Move Forward Party leader was under investigation for holding 42,000 shares in the shuttered television company ITV Public Company. 

EC member Thitichet Nuchanart said the poll agency will call Pita and iTV executives for questioning. 

BERLIN (AP) — Germany has appointed a senior lawmaker with one of the country’s governing parties as its new ambassador to Russia, handing him the delicate diplomatic post as tensions spiral over Moscow’s war in Ukraine.

The Foreign Ministry said Wednesday that Russia has given its formal approval for Alexander Lambsdorff to become ambassador, a necessary step before he can take the post. It said that he is expected to start work this summer.

TAIPEI, June 21 (Reuters) - A Chinese aircraft carrier group led by the vessel Shandong sailed through the sensitive Taiwan Strait on Wednesday, Taiwan's defence ministry said, amid heightened military tension over the island Beijing claims as its own territory.

The ministry said the Shandong, commissioned in 2019, had sailed in a southerly direction through the western part of the strait, and it had dispatched "appropriate forces" to monitor the Chinese activities.

TOKYO, June 21 (Xinhua) -- Heavy rain hit southwestern Japan's Amami Oshima Island on Wednesday, with hundreds of residents being isolated and thousands of households facing water supply cuts, local media reported.

As of 2 p.m. local time, an evacuation order was in place for 1,193 people from 735 households in Amami City and the villages of Yamato and Uken on the island in Kagoshima Prefecture, public broadcaster NHK reported.

MOSCOW, June 21. /TASS/: Moscow and Doha are working on joint projects totaling more than 160 bln rubles ($1.9 bln), Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said during talks with Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Qatar Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani

He noted that Moscow and Doha are expanding "interaction in the investment sphere."

ROME, June 21 (NNN-ACN) — Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, leading a delegation from the island visiting Italy, met with businessmen from that European country.

As reported by the president on Twitter, during the meeting he reiterated the willingness to strengthen economic, trade, investment and cooperation relations between the two nations.

Diaz-Canel ratified to the businessmen his country’s willingness to work together to strengthen relations in sectors of mutual interest.