LOS ANGELES -- The number of container ships at anchor or drifting in San Pedro Bay off the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach in U.S. Southern California set new record this week and kept rising by the day.

According to the Marine Exchange of Southern California, a non-profit organization in charge of recording ship arrivals and departures in the two biggest container ports in the United States, there were an all-time-high 61 container ships in the queue in San Pedro Bay on Wednesday. (US-LOS ANGELES-PORT)

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DUSHANBE -- Senior officials from China, Russia, Pakistan and Iran agreed on Thursday to step up communication and coordination on the Afghan issue.

Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Assistant to Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Rasoul Mousavi reached the consensus at an informal meeting on Afghanistan in the Tajik capital of Dushanbe. (China-Afghan issue)

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GENEVA -- The right to development is a universal and inalienable human right, however, at present, the global realization of the right to development is far below expectation, a senior Chinese diplomat said on Thursday.

Delivering a joint statement on behalf of over 50 countries at the 48th Session of the Human Rights Council Thursday, Chen Xu, China's Permanent Representative to the UN Office at Geneva, also called upon the UN human rights bodies to prioritize the right to development and mainstream it in the UN system. (UN-Rights-Development)

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ROME -- In a last indirect push to the ongoing vaccination campaign, Italy made the COVID-19 green pass mandatory for all people in the job market, both private and public sectors.

After a meeting on Thursday, Prime Minister Mario Draghi's cabinet delivered the provision with a specific decree that will enter into force on Oct. 15, to give companies and public offices time to adjust. (Italy-Green Pass)

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MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Thursday again urged Washington to end its more than half-century trade embargo against Cuba, calling the decades-old sanctions policy "perverse."

In a speech marking Mexico's Independence Day celebrations, to which Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel was invited as a special guest, Lopez Obrador admonished that nations should not take advantage of the "misfortune of other peoples" to further their own agenda. (Mexico-US)