CAIRO, July 23 (NNN-MAP) -- The Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union has lauded the pivotal role of Morocco's King Mohammed VI, who is also Chairman of Al Quds Committee, in defending the rights of Palestinians.

Speakers and delegates from Arab national parliaments and assemblies lauded the pivotal and pioneering role of the King in defending the rights of the Palestinian people, according to the final statement of the 28th Extraordinary Session of the Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union, held here over the weekend.

KIGALI, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived here on Sunday for a state visit to Rwanda, the first by a Chinese head of state to the African country.

Upon their arrival, Xi and his wife, Peng Liyuan, were warmly received by Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his wife Jeannette Kagame.

At the airport, a group of local people in colorful clothes with distinctive ethnic features performed dances and beat drums to greet the honored Chinese guests.

NEW DELHI, India, July 23 (NNN-PTI) - India's main opposition Congress party, on Sunday, named its chief, Rahul Gandhi, as the grand old outfit's prime ministerial candidate, for next year's general elections.

"Naturally, the Congress president would be the only face to be projected. The Congress would fight this election by putting forward our leader," party spokesman, R.S. Surjewala, told the media in Delhi.

BUENOS AIRES, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, has reiterated the risks that protectionist trade policies will have negative impacts on world economy.

During a Saturday press conference here in the Argentine capital, Lagarde noted recent global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) forecasts amid the United State's application of heavy tariffs being placed on various foreign imports.

AMMAN, Jordan, July 23 (NNN-PETRA) - Jordan, on Sunday, condemned Israel's repeated violations against the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Jordan's Minister of State for Media Affairs, Jumana Ghunaimat, said, Jordan strongly condemns Israel's violations and provocations, especially radical settlers breaking into the yards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, under the protection of the Israeli police.

The minister said, such practices are condemned and rejected, as they violated all laws.

LA PAZ, July 23 (NNN-XINHUA) -- Asia has become Bolivia's main market for mineral exports, overtaking the United States, in the past three years due to better export conditions and prices, according to the Bolivian mining ministry.

In 2017, Asia received 61 percent of Bolivia's minerals exports, including zinc, gold, silver, lead, tin and copper, valued at more than US$2.3 billion.

Meanwhile, the U.S. demand for Bolivia's minerals fell from US$256 million worth of imports in 2015 to US$59 million in 2017.

18 July 2018; Egypt SIS; Minister of Investment and International Cooperation Sahar Nasr and UN Assistant Secretary General and Director of the UN Development Programe (UNDP) Regional Bureau for Arab States Mourad Wahba on Wednesday signed a declaration of intent to support Egypt's program for Sinai Peninsua development.

Minister of Environment Yasmin Fouad attended the signing ceremony which was held on the fringe of the Economic and Social Council Forum on Financing for Development, currently in session in New York.

MOSCOW, July 21. /TASS/. The Russian Presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights has filed a request with the US Commission on Civil Rights, asking to protect the rights of Russian citizen Maria Butina, says a letter to the commission’s chair, Catherine Lhamon.

Mumbai, Jul 21 (PTI); Senior Congress leader Kapil Sibal said today that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's reply to the Lok Sabha debate on the no-confidence motion was "full of hatred".

"The country cannot run on hatred. Our country is a family. Modi's speech in the Lok Sabha yesterday was full of hatred. The need of the hour is to protect the country and its Constitution," Sibal said at a 'Bharat Bachao' meeting organised here by the Youth Congress.

"It is not the BJP, but the RSS that is ruling the country," he alleged.

Jaipur, Jul 21 (PTI); A 19-year old youth was today given death penalty by a court for raping a seven-month-old child in Alwar district of Rajasthan in May, the first such sentencing in the state after a law entailing capital punishment to those convicted of raping a child below 12 years of age came into force, according to police.

A special court hearing cases of SC/ST Act and POCSO Act in Alwar sentenced to death Pintu, who was found guilty of raping the infant in Laxmangarh area in Alwar on May 9.

Aspen (US), Jul 21 (AP); China is waging a "quiet kind of cold war" against the United States, using all its resources to try to replace America as the leading power in the world, a top CIA expert on Asia has said.

Beijing doesn't want to go to war, he said, but the current communist government, under President Xi Jingping, is subtly working on multiple fronts to undermine the US in ways that are different than the more well-publicized activities being employed by Russia.

Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov told the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo to release detained Maria Butina who has been arrested on “fabricated charges”.

Butina was accused for trying to infiltrate the National Rifle Association and influence US policy toward Russia, and was arrested by American authorities.