MOSCOW, June 3 (Reuters) - Russian mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin said on Saturday that Kremlin factions were destroying the state by trying to sow discord between him and Chechen fighters.

That row had now been settled but infighting in the Kremlin had opened a Pandora's Box of rifts, he said.

Prigozhin, a 62-year-old former restauranteur who founded the Wagner mercenary group and is a member of President Vladimir Putin's wider circle, has gained widespread notoriety during the 15-month war in Ukraine.

MOSCOW, June 2 (Reuters) - Alexei Navalny, Russia's most famous opposition leader, on Friday shared letters showing how he has poked fun at prison authorities for several months with a host of bizarre requests for a kimono, a balalaika, a beetle and even to keep a kangaroo.

The requests were turned down by the maximum security IK-6 penal colony at Melekhovo, about 250 km (115 miles) east of Moscow, according to the Russian documents he posted online.

WASHINGTON, June 3 (Reuters) - A senior U.S. State Department official will travel to China next week, the department said on Saturday, as Washington seeks to boost communication with Beijing at a time of tense relations between the two countries.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink will discuss "key issues in the bilateral relationship" during his visit to China, the State Department said in a statement. He will be joined by White House National Security Council Senior Director for China and Taiwan Affairs Sarah Beran.

ANKARA, Jun 3 (APP): Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Saturday invited the Turkish investors and businessmen to expand the investment in diverse areas of Pakistan.

He was talking to a delegation of Anadolu Group comprising of CEO coca cola CCI, Karim Yahi, Coca cola CCI chief strategy office Atilla Yerlikaya and Coca Cola CCI Head of public policy Taylan Coban which called on him here.

The prime minister encouraged the Anadolu group for bringing investment in Pakistan and providing job opportunities to the people of Pakistan.

ADDIS ABABA, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Chairperson of the African Union (AU) Commission Moussa Faki Mahamat called for cessation of violence in Senegal.

"The chairperson of the AU Commission is closely following the events in Senegal which have caused deaths. The chairperson strongly condemns such violence and calls for their immediate cessation," the statement released late Friday said.

Faki called on all Senegalese political actors to show restraint from acts that tarnish the image of Senegalese democracy.

MOSCOW, June 3. /TASS/: Russian President Vladimir Putin remains open to any contact that would allow meeting the goals of the special military operation through peaceful means, but the West does not provide such a chance, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in the ‘Moscow. The Kremlin. Putin’ program on the Rossiya-1 TV channel.

An excerpt from the TV program was posted by journalist Pavel Zarubin on his Telegram channel.

GENEVA, June 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The World Meteorological Organisation voted for Argentina’s Celeste Saulo to become its first woman leader and steer the WMO’s critical global role in tracking climate change.

Saulo, a WMO vice-president who has headed Argentina’s weather service since 2014, won a landslide vote at the UN climate and weather agency’s congress in Geneva.

The WMO’s role in climate change has become increasingly prominent and Saulo, 59, will likely become a well-known advocate on this pressing world issue.

MOSCOW, June 3 (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Saturday that journalists from "unfriendly countries" would not be allowed into the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, which President Vladimir Putin has used to showcase the Russian economy to global investors.

The forum in St Petersburg, the former imperial capital built by Tsar Peter the Great 300 years ago as a "window" to Europe, has been held since 1997 and is cast by many officials as Russia's answer to the World Economic Forum held in Davos.

ISLAMABAD, Jun 03 (APP): A total of 38,934 Pakistani intending pilgrims of government scheme have arrived in Saudi Arabia ahead of the hajj pilgrimage, said spokesman Ministry of Religious Affairs and Interfaith Harmony.

He shared the latest figures of intending pilgrims arriving in Makkah Mukarma and Madinah Munawara, stating that out of the total, 28,934 pilgrims have reached Madinah, while 10,504 individuals have already settled in Makkah Mukarma with the purpose of partaking in the esteemed hajj ceremony.

JERUSALEM/CAIRO, June 3 (Xinhua) -- Three Israeli soldiers and a member of Egyptian security forces were killed early on Saturday in a shootout along the border between Israel and Egypt, according to the two countries' military statements.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said in a statement that the assailant who killed the three soldiers was an Egyptian policeman. He first killed two soldiers, a man and a woman, who were on duty in a border post and gunned down a third during an exchange of fire hours later when a manhunt was underway.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Concerns around civilian safety spiked in Ukraine on Saturday, as officials announced that an inspection had found nearly a quarter of the country’s air-raid shelters locked or unusable, just days after a woman in Kyiv allegedly died waiting outside a shuttered shelter during a Russian missile barrage.

The Ukrainian interior ministry said through its press service Saturday that of the “over 4,800” shelters it had inspected, 252 were locked and a further 893 “unfit for use.”

PARIS, June 3 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The first draft of a highly anticipated international treaty to combat plastic pollution should be finished by the end of November, 175 nations gathered in Paris decided Monday after five days of gruelling talks.

The assembly’s negotiating committee called for the preparation of “a zero-draft text” of a “legally binding instrument” ahead of a third round of talks in Nairobi, with the aim of finalising the treaty in 2024.