Europe

LONDON, July 7 (Reuters) - As Thames Water's financial troubles raise questions about such investments, Britain will next week try to persuade pension schemes to plough billions of pounds into infrastructure and start-ups in its next leg of post-Brexit reforms.

British Finance Minister Jeremy Hunt will on Monday set out the government's latest thinking on getting cash locked up in pension pots to work in the economy.

LONDON, July 6 (Reuters) - Iran's Revolutionary Guards "forcibly seized" a commercial ship in international waters in the Gulf on Thursday and the vessel was possibly involved in smuggling, a U.S. Navy spokesperson said.

The U.S. Navy had monitored the situation and decided not to make any further response, U.S. 5th Fleet spokesperson Commander Tim Hawkins said.

AMSTERDAM, July 7 (Reuters) - The Dutch government on Friday collapsed after failing to reach a deal on restricting immigration, junior coalition partner Christian Union said, a move expected to trigger new elections in the fall.

"The four parties decided that they cannot reach an agreement on migration. Therefore they decided to end this government," party spokesman Tim Kuijsten said, confirming media reports that Prime Minister Mark Rutte would tender the resignation of his government.

PRAGUE, July 7 (Xinhua) -- Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala and visiting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday discussed further aid and the reconstruction of Ukraine.

Fiala confirmed that the Czech Republic will donate additional attack helicopters and more pieces of large-caliber ammunition to Ukraine. The Czech Republic will also help Ukraine with pilot training, the Czech government said in a statement.

MOSCOW (AP) — A blast at a Russian explosives plant on Friday killed six people and injured two more, emergency officials said.

The explosion occurred as workers were dismantling equipment at one of the workshops of the Promsintez plant in Russia’s Samara region, some 800 kilometers (500 miles) southeast of Moscow, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing emergency officials.

The blast didn’t start a fire, the report said.

GENEVA, Jul 06 (APP):Pakistan, on behalf of the OIC, has said that the reason for seeking an urgent debate in the UN Human Rights Council on the burning of a Holy Quran outside a mosque in Sweden was to underscore the need for adoption of effective national legal measures to put an end to such provocative acts.

The desecration of the holy book, which took place outside the Swedish capital Stockholm’s main mosque last week, was carried out by a man during a protest authorized by the police, sparking off a global outrage and diplomatic backlash.

MOSCOW, July 6. /TASS/: The extension of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s term of office for another year will not affect relations between Russia and the alliance because they are non-existent, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.

"With respect to whether that (the extension of Stoltenberg’s term - TASS) will or will not influence relations with Russia, it won’t. That’s because Russia and NATO don’t have any relations," she said at a news conference.

МOSCOW, July 6. /TASS/: Any agreements that the Kiev regime makes with other countries to secure military aid will not have an impact on the outcome of the special military operation and the situation on the frontline today confirms this, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

MOSCOW, July 6. /TASS/: Plans to relocate religious relics from the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra monastery to the West make it clear that Ukraine is looked upon as a colony, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Thursday.

"It’s a tradition for colonial powers to behave like bandits toward the national and cultural heritages of the countries they view as their colonies. Undoubtedly, they consider Ukraine to be their colony, not just their fiefdom," she pointed out.

KRASNODAR, July 6. /TASS/: NATO, led by the US, coordinates Kiev’s military operations against the Russian Army, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev said Thursday.

"Neo-Nazis grabbed power in Ukraine after the bloody coup, organized by the US and its satellites. Pursuing their selfish goals, the US carries out an undeclared war against Russia, using territory and population of Ukraine," he said during a meeting on national security in the Southern Federal District Thursday.