NEW DELHI, June 19 (Xinhua) -- At least four people were killed and around 70 others injured after two buses collided head-on in India's southern state of Tamil Nadu, confirmed a local cop over phone on Monday.

The mishap occurred in Tamil Nadu's Cuddalore district. The two private buses were moving between Cuddalore and Panruti areas when the front tyre of one of the buses burst. As a result, the bus went out of control and collided with another bus coming on the opposite direction.

19 June 2023; MEMO: An Israeli court yesterday ruled that the Umm Qassah mixed primary school in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron must be demolished within a week.

The school's principal, Youssef Al-Basaita, told Palestinian media that Israeli authorities had notified him of the demolition last year, adding that they had prevented the school from adding new classrooms.

CAIRO (AP) — The United Nations called on countries in the Middle East and Europe on Monday to ramp up aid efforts in Sudan to address the deepening humanitarian crisis.

Sudan has been rocked by fighting for more than two months as the military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces battle for control of the country. Sudan’s Health Ministry said Saturday that more than 3,000 have been killed in the conflict, which has decimated the country’s fragile infrastructure and sparked ethnic violence in the western Darfur region.

JENIN REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank (AP) — Israeli military forces raided a refugee camp in the northern West Bank on Monday, igniting the fiercest day of fighting in years as Palestinian militants detonated roadside bombs and Israeli helicopter gunships struck Palestinian gunmen to rescue troops trapped in the hourslong firefight.

At least five Palestinians were killed, including a 15-year-old boy, and over 90 others were wounded, Palestinian health officials said. Seven Israeli soldiers were also wounded, the army said.

18 June 2023; MEMO: US President Joe Biden's top adviser Brett McGurk arrived in Riyadh to discuss a possible normalization of relations between Saudi Arabia and Israel, according to a US news portal, reports Anadolu Agency.

McGurk's talks with Saudi officials "will focus on the administration's efforts to reach a normalization agreement between Israel and the kingdom as well as other issues," Axios reported.

ADDIS ABABA, June 19 (Xinhua) -- Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat has issued a statement condemning a terror attack in western Uganda that has killed dozens of students.

In a press statement released late Saturday, Faki said he strongly condemns the heinous and shocking terrorist attack by suspected Allied Democratic Force (ADF) militia that targeted a secondary school in western Uganda, near the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

LONDON (AP) — Britain’s House of Commons is likely to endorse on Monday a report that found Boris Johnson lied to lawmakers about lockdown-flouting parties in his office, a humiliating censure that would strip the former prime minister of his lifetime access to Parliament.

Lawmakers debated the report by the Privileges Committee that found Johnson in contempt of Parliament, and were expected to approve its findings. It was unclear whether there would be a formal vote or whether the report would be approved by acclamation.

KINSHASA, June 19 (Xinhua) -- About 2.8 million people have been forced from their homes since March 2022 in North Kivu, South Kivu and Ituri, the three conflict-plagued provinces in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Monday.

The central African country now has 6.3 million internally displaced people, the highest number in any African country, the OCHA said in a press release.

TOKYO (AP) — Five people were killed and 12 others taken to the hospital after a truck collided with a bus in Hokkaido in northern Japan, according to local media reports.

Police said the truck might have strayed into oncoming traffic, Kyodo news agency reported. The bus was carrying 15 passengers at the time of the accident, which occurred on Sunday.

The drivers of both vehicles died in the crash, Kyodo said.

Video from broadcaster NTV showed the mangled wreckage of the two vehicles stuck on the road in the aftermath of the crash.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Kremlin’s spokesman said Monday that U.N. aid workers who want to visit areas ravaged by the recent Kakhovka dam collapse in southern Ukraine can’t go there because fighting in the war makes it unsafe.

The United Nations rebuked Moscow on Sunday for allegedly denying aid workers access to Russian-occupied areas where residents are stranded amid “devastating destruction.”

18 June 2023; MEMO: Switzerland's ambassador to Turkiye has confirmed that criminal investigations have been launched against demonstrators who burned an effigy and picture of Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Swiss city of Zurich this week.

On Wednesday this week, a leftist group known as the Zurich Revolutionary Strike Collective set fire to the Turkish flag and an effigy and picture of Erdogan outside a bank in Zurich, prompting outrage by Turkiye.

MANILA, June 19 (Xinhua) -- At least 628 people have fallen ill after being displaced in shelters due to the eruption of Mayon Volcano, the most active volcano in the Philippines, a government agency reported on Monday.

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council recorded at least 10 kinds of sickness affecting the evacuees aged between 2 to 64, including coughs, colds, fever, gastroenteritis, acute respiratory infection, and skin disease.