World News Roundup: Digger trucks drafted in to rescue people stranded in China floods; Croatia tightens controls on Adriatic coast to safeguard tourist season and more

The ministry said in a statement that it had received information on Thursday evening that the boat was sinking, 161 miles (259 km) southwest of the Turkish resort town of Kas. Haiti's murdered president laid to rest as tensions flare Pallbearers in military attire carried late Haitian President Jovenel Moise's body in a closed wooden coffin as his funeral got underway on Friday, two weeks after he was shot dead at home in an assassination still shrouded in mystery.

Following is a summary of current world news briefs.

Digger trucks drafted in to rescue people stranded in China floods

Workers driving construction vehicles helped to rescue stranded residents and deliver food to those still trapped on Friday after days of torrential rain swamped the central Chinese city of Zhengzhou. As floodwaters began to recede, rescuers in the city of 12 million used digger trucks, inflatable boats and makeshift rafts to transport some residents to dry land and deliver provisions to others in high-rise apartment blocks.

Croatia tightens controls on Adriatic coast to safeguard tourist season

Croatia has decided to tighten controls against the spread of COVID-19 along its Adriatic coast in an effort to safeguard its economically vital summer tourist season, Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic said on Friday. "Any public gathering of more than 50 people will be forbidden from next week," Davor Bozinovic, who is also head of the national civil protection directorate, told a news conference in the capital Zagreb.

Pope to skip Sunday Mass but will make regular noon address - Vatican

Pope Francis will skip a Mass on Sunday that he had been scheduled to say before his recent surgery, but the Vatican said there was no cause for alarm and that it was part of normal convalescence. The Vatican said the pope will go ahead with his Sunday noon prayer but that a Mass for the Catholic Church day to pay homage to the elderly and grandparents will be said instead by Archbishop Rino Fisichella.

Turkey rescues 37 people from sunken migrant boat - ministry

Thirty-seven people have been rescued from a migrant boat with 45 people on board that sank south of Turkey, and Turkish naval ships and an aircraft are continuing search and rescue operations, the defence ministry said on Friday. The ministry said in a statement that it had received information on Thursday evening that the boat was sinking, 161 miles (259 km) southwest of the Turkish resort town of Kas.

Haiti's murdered president laid to rest as tensions flare

Pallbearers in military attire carried late Haitian President Jovenel Moise's body in a closed wooden coffin as his funeral got underway on Friday, two weeks after he was shot dead at home in an assassination still shrouded in mystery. The pallbearers placed the polished casket on a dais garlanded with flowers. A Roman Catholic priest blessed the coffin and a Haitian flag was unfurled.

Azerbaijan jails 13 Armenian military personnel for six years -court

An Azerbaijan court late on Thursday sentenced 13 members of Armenia's armed forces to six years in prison, finding them guilty of illegally crossing the border, weapons possession and terrorism offences. Armenia had no immediate reaction to the sentencing.

At least 67 dead in India as rains trigger floods, landslides

At least 67 people have died in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, authorities said on Friday, after torrential monsoon rains caused landslides and flooded low-lying areas, cutting off hundreds of villages. Parts of India's west coast received up to 594 mm (23 inches) of rainfall over 24 hours, forcing authorities to evacuate people from vulnerable areas as they released water from dams that were threatening to overflow.

China's Xi visits Tibet for first time as president

China's President Xi Jinping visited the Tibet Autonomous Region on July 21-22, according to the official Xinhua news agency, in his first recorded visit as leader of the nation and the first visit to Tibet by the country's leader in three decades. Xi's visit comes at a time where China faces increased security tensions stemming from clashes with India and the withdrawal of U.S.-led troops from Afghanistan.

Bosnia's peace envoy imposes jail terms for genocide denial

Bosnia's outgoing international peace overseer decreed amendments to its criminal code on Friday to allow jail terms for the denial of the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, a frequently expressed view among nationalist Serbs. The decree by High Representative Valentin Inzko sets jail terms of up to five years for anyone who "publicly condones, denies, grossly trivialises or tries to justify" the genocide or war crimes committed during Bosnia's 1992-95 conflict.

Iran's Khamenei says water crisis protesters cannot be blamed

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Friday that Iranians protesting over water shortages cannot be blamed, and called on officials to deal with the water problem. Street protests over water shortages spread from the oil-rich southwestern Khuzestan province to a nearby area overnight where one youth was shot dead with pellet guns and seven were injured, a police official said, blaming "counter-revolutionaries".