COPENHAGEN, Dec 21 (Reuters) - The Norwegian cruise ship MS Maud suffered a power outage after a rogue wave shattered windows on the bridge while it sailed in the North Sea, causing the vessel to lose its ability to navigate, Danish authorities and the ship's owner said on Thursday.

The 266 passengers and 131 crew members were safe, according to the Danish Joint Rescue Coordination Centre.

BEIJING, Dec. 22 (APP): “As a new business model, ‘Silk Road e-commerce’ provides global consumers with a wealth of goods and services with its convenient, efficient and low-cost features, and we would like to ride the wave of it to boost bilateral trade,” noted Aqeel Ahmed Chaudhry, director of the Pakistani national pavilion located in the Silk Road e-commerce cooperation pilot zone center, Pudong, Shanghai, China.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Police officers responding to a deadly shooting inside the business school at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, mistook the gunman for a bystander and urged him to get out of the building amid the frantic search for the suspect and victims, according to body camera footage and police accounts.

With their weapons drawn, the two Las Vegas police officers climbed stairs to a second-floor walkway overlooking the ground floor of the business school during the Dec. 6 shooting that left three professors dead and one wounded on the 30,000-student campus.

CAPE TOWN, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- The well-known Cape of Good Hope was closed Friday morning as a wildfire has been burning for the fourth day on a mountain near Cape Town, the legislative capital of South Africa.

The wildfire started Tuesday on the mountain slopes of Simon's Town, about 40 km south of Cape Town and part of the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality.

MOSCOW, December 22. /TASS/: The idea that Russia is allegedly destroying Ukraine’s cultural heritage is baseless, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a joint meeting of the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO.

"Attempts to disparage Russia for the so-called destruction of Ukraine’s cultural heritage are along the same lines. Even though nobody can present any evidence toward this end; it simply does not exist," he said.

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 22 (NNN-Bernama) — Egypt is grateful to the people and government of Malaysia for their unwavering support in helping the Palestinians in Gaza with humanitarian aid.

Following the October 23 meeting in Cairo between Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, the presidential directive to promptly send humanitarian aid from Malaysia to Gaza as soon as possible was issued, according to Egypt’s ambassador to Malaysia, Ragai Tawfik Said Nasr.

ISLAMABAD, Dec 22 (Reuters) - Pakistan's Supreme Court on Friday granted former Prime Minister Imran Khan bail in a case related to a leak of state secrets, but it was not clear how he could be released while serving a three-year sentence for corruption and facing other charges.

The 71-year-old former cricket star has been embroiled in a tangle of political and legal battles since he was ousted as prime minister in April 2022. He has not been seen in public since he was jailed for three years in August for unlawfully selling state gifts while in office from 2018 to 2022.

NAIROBI, December 22. /TASS/: The last French troops left Niger on Friday, AFP reported, citing Nigerien military.

"Today's date marks the end of the disengagement process of French forces in the Sahel," Niger Army Lieutenant Salim Ibrahim said at a ceremony at Niamey Air Base, which used to be home to some French troops.

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 22 (NNN-Bernama) — The ringgit continued to trend higher as it strengthened against the US dollar in the early session on Friday following weaker US economic data, an economist said.

At 9 am, the ringgit climbed to 4.6300/6380 against the greenback from yesterday’s close of 4.6525/6565.

Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd chief economist Dr Mohd Afzanizam Abdul Rashid said the final third quarter (3Q) 2023 US gross domestic product (GDP) estimates came in lower than expected at 4.9 per cent against consensus survey of 5.2 per cent.

DUBAI/RIYADH, Dec 20 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's name was conspicuously - perhaps surprisingly - absent from a list of countries the United States announced as part of its new naval coalition protecting Red Sea shipping from Yemen's Houthi group.

Although it has a U.S.-equipped military, has been waging war on the Houthis for nearly nine years and relies on Red Sea ports for 36% of imports, Saudi Arabia along with Gulf ally the United Arab Emirates has proclaimed no interest in the venture.

BOSTON (AP) — Boston Mayor Michelle Wu issued a formal apology Wednesday to two Black men who were wrongly accused in a 1989 murder of a white woman, a case that coarsened divisions in a city long split along racial lines and renewed suspicion and anger directed at the police department by the city’s Black community.

“I am so sorry for what you endured,” the mayor said during a news conference. “I am so sorry for the pain that you have carried for so many years.”

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United States, key allies and Arab nations engaged in high-level diplomacy in hopes of avoiding another U.S. veto of a new U.N. resolution on desperately needed aid to Gaza ahead of a long-delayed vote now scheduled for Thursday morning.

The U.S. has been struggling to change the text’s references to a cessation of hostilities in the Israel-Hamas war. Another sticking point is the inspection of aid trucks into Gaza to ensure they are only carrying humanitarian goods. The current draft proposes a U.N. role, an idea Israel is likely to oppose.