BEIJING, June 7 (Reuters) - China's exports shrank much faster than expected in May while imports extended declines with a grim outlook for global demand, especially from developed markets, raising doubts about the fragile economic recovery.

The world's second-largest economy grew faster than expected in the first quarter thanks to robust services consumption and a backlog of orders following years of COVID disruptions, but factory output has slowed as rising interest rates and inflation squeeze demand in the United States and Europe.

JERUSALEM, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Israel's Foreign Minister Eli Cohen rebuked on Wednesday U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris for speaking out against the government's contested judiciary overhaul plan.

In an interview on Israel's state-owned Kan Bet Radio, Cohen chided Harris, saying that he believes she has not read the reform's bills. "I can tell you that if you ask her what bothers her about the reform, she won't be able to tell you even a single thing," he said.

KHERSON, Ukraine (AP) — Authorities rushed drinking water to areas flooded by a collapsed dam in southern Ukraine on Wednesday as they managed a growing humanitarian and ecological disaster along a river that forms part of the front line in the 15-month war.

The collapse of the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam and emptying of its reservoir on the Dnieper River added to the misery the region has suffered for more than a year from artillery and missile attacks.

BEIJING, Jun 7 (NNN-XINHUA) – At the invitation of Chinese President, Xi Jinping, President of the Republic of Honduras, Iris Xiomara Castro Sarmiento, will pay a state visit to China from Jun 9 to 14, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, Hua Chunying, announced today.

06 June 2023; MEMO: The first bream fish farm was established in the Gaza Strip last year five miles from the beach. Implemented by the FAO and funded by the State of Italy, it was the first farm of its kind in the enclave.

Three farms have now been set up, each with approximately 100,000 fish, and according to the Ministry of Agriculture, the harvest will be approximately 60-80 tonnes.

QUETTA, Pakistan, June 7 (Reuters) - Pakistani police on Wednesday formally named former Prime Minister Imran Khan in connection with the murder by unknown gunmen of a lawyer seeking sedition proceedings against him.

Police registered an "abetment to murder" case against former cricket hero Khan, 70, who faces dozens of charges since his ouster in a parliamentary vote of confidence in April last year.

Khan, who has not been charged in connection with the lawyer's murder, has dismissed all the cases against him as concocted by his opponents.

ANKARA, June 7. /TASS/: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday discussed the situation around the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant with his Ukrainian counterpart Vladimir Zelensky over the phone and suggested forming an international commission to investigate the incident with Russia's participation, the Turkish leader's office reported.

KANDAL, Cambodia, June 7 (Xinhua) -- Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen said on Wednesday that China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has played a crucial role in the development of Cambodia and other member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) over the past decade.

"Cambodia is one of the countries that has benefited from China's Belt and Road Initiative," Hun Sen said in a speech during the groundbreaking ceremony for Phnom Penh-Bavet Expressway, the kingdom's second Chinese-invested expressway.

06 June 2023; MEMO: The number of women choosing to freeze their eggs in the UAE has "significantly" increased following changes to the law, reported Al-Arabiya News.

UAE fertility clinics and in-vitro fertility (IVF) specialists across the country have observed a sudden increase in demand for information about the service and opting to access the treatment.

ATLANTA (AP) — Activists announced an effort Wednesday to force a referendum that would allow Atlanta voters to decide whether the construction of a proposed police and firefighter training center should proceed, in a potential last-ditch effort to halt the project that its opponents refer to as “Cop City.”

NEW DELHI, June 7 (Xinhua) -- India's flag air carrier Air India said on Wednesday it will be sending a replacement plane from Mumbai to ferry stranded passengers from its U.S.-bound flight that made an emergency landing in Russia over an engine snag.

A Delhi-San Francisco flight of Air India with 216 passengers and 16 crew members on board was Tuesday forced to land at Magadan airport in the far east region of Russia after one of its engines developed a snag.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The Turkish lira tumbled to a fresh record low Wednesday, extending its slide against the U.S. dollar since President Recep Tayyip Erdogan started his third term.

The lira weakened by around 7% on Wednesday, hitting 23.18 against the dollar. The decline took the currency’s loss since Erdogan’s inauguration Saturday and appointment of a new government to more than 8%. The currency has weakened by around 20% since the start of the year.

The lira also weakened by more than 7% against the euro on Wednesday.