FLORENCE, July 25 (NNN-Bernama) -- A 70-year-old priest working at a parish near Florence has been arrested for sexual assault, Italian news agency ANSA reported.

The priest has been accused of sexual assault after being caught in a car with a 10-year-old girl on Monday, sources said Wednesday.

26 July 2018; AFP; Japan on Thursday executed six more members of the cult behind the deadly 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway, local media said, weeks after the group's leader was hanged.

Public broadcaster NHK and other outlets said all six Aum Shinrikyo cult members remaining on death row had been executed on Thursday morning. There was no immediate official confirmation.

The executions come after authorities hanged "guru" Shoko Asahara and six of his one-time followers earlier this month, after years on death row.

JOHANNESBURG, July 26 (NNN-SABC) -- President Cyril Ramaphosa has hailed the first decade of the existence of the BRICS grouping of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa as a major success in the global developmental agenda.

Addressing the opening of the BRICS Business Summit here, the South African head of State said that over the past ten years, the bloc had made enormous strides in a number of co-operation areas including climate change and promoting sustainable development.

Damascus, SANA- The United Nations Resident Coordinator in Syria Ali al-Zaatari denounced the terrorist attacks that took place in Sweida province and caused dozens of civilian causalities.

In a statement on Wednesday, al-Zaatari reaffirmed the UN firm stance and its demands to protect civilians, infrastructure and keep civilians away from the impacts of war wherever they were.

JOHANNESBURG, July 25 (Xinhua) -- From new global growth drivers to the international landscape and the global governance system, Chinese President Xi Jinping here Wednesday shared his thoughts on the changes the world is going to witness in the next decade.

BEIJING, July 25 (Xinhua) -- China expressed strong dissatisfaction and opposition on Wednesday to a U.S. defense spending bill which includes propositions aimed at China, and urged the U.S. not to disrupt the stable development of bilateral ties.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang made the remarks at a routine news briefing when asked for comments about a draft bill of the U.S. National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019.

KHARTOUM, July 25 (Xinhua) -- South Sudan's conflicting parties on Wednesday signed an agreement on power-sharing and governance in Sudan's capital Khartoum.

The agreement, read out by Sudanese Foreign Minister Al-Dirdiri Mohamed Ahmed, said Salva Kiir will continue to serve as President of Sudan during the transitional period, while the opposition leader Riek Machar will assume the position of First Vice President.

There will be four vice presidents from different political parties as stated in the agreement.

Ballia, Jul 25 (PTI); The Basic Education Department has started removing the word 'Islamia' prefixed to the names of some government primary schools in the Ballia district here, the officials said today.

The exercise has been launched here days after a similar step was initiated in another eastern UP district of Deoria.

Washington, Jul 25 (PTI); President Donald Trump has said the US is ready to make a "real deal" with Iran over its nuclear programme, days after he warned Tehran of historic consequences for threatening America.

Trump in May pulled the US out of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement struck by the Obama administration by calling it the "the worst" deal ever negotiated.

Addressing the national convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, Trump said his administration stands ready for Iran to come back to the negotiating table.

26 July 2018; AFP; A massive underground lake has been detected for the first time on Mars, raising hopes that more water -- and maybe even life -- exists there, international astronomers said Wednesday.

Located under a layer of Martian ice, the lake is about 12 miles (20 kilometers) wide, said the report in the US journal Science.

It is the largest body of liquid water ever found on the Red Planet.

"Water is there. We have no more doubt," co-author Enrico Flamini, the Italian space agency's Mars Express mission manager, told a press conference.

Thiruvananthapuram, Jul 25 (PTI); In a landmark ruling, a Special CBI court today sentenced to death two serving police officers in connection with the custodial death of a 26-year-old man in 2005.

K Jithakumar and S V Sreekumar, presently serving as assistant sub-inspector and civil police officer respectively, were awarded the death penalty, along with a fine of Rs 2 lakh by the court here.

Pronouncing the verdict, Judge J Nazer said "this is a brutal and dastardly murder by accused one and two."

MONTEVIDEO, July 26 (NNN-XINHUA) -- Uruguay's state-owned power company said on Tuesday that the recent record demand for electricity was completely covered by renewable energies.

The National Administration of Power Plants and Electrical Transmission (UTE) said the South American country's power demand reached a record 2,063 megawatts on Monday night when temperatures dropped to around 7 degrees Celsius in the capital Montevideo. The country, in the southern hemisphere, is currently in winter.