BRUSSELS -- China on Wednesday called on the European Union (EU) to stop sending wrong messages on issues concerning China's sovereignty, after Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa accused Beijing for its actions including the "expelling" of the Lithuanian ambassador.

On Aug. 10, Chinese Foreign Ministry announced the decision to recall its ambassador to Lithuania and demanded the Lithuanian government withdraw its ambassador to China, in reaction to the Lithuanian government's decision to allow the Taiwan authorities to open a "representative office" under the name of "Taiwan." (EU-China-Sovereignty)

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NEW YORK -- American private space company Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) launched its first civilian space tourism mission on Wednesday night in Florida, a SpaceX webcast said.

The Crew Dragon spacecraft, named as Inspiration4 and sent from Kennedy Space Center, entered the orbit of earth shortly after the launch.

As the world's first all-commercial astronaut mission to orbit, Inspiration4 is commanded by Jared Isaacman, the 38-year-old founder and CEO of Shift4 Payments, said SpaceX. (US-SpaceX-Launch)

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PYONGYANG -- The Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) launched a railway-borne missile Wednesday with a mission to strike the target area 800 km away, the official Korean Central News Agency reported Thursday.

"The test firing drill took place for the purpose of confirming the practicality of the railway-borne missile system deployed for action for the first time, of judging the combat readiness and capability of performing firepower duty of the newly-organized regiment all of a sudden and of attaining proficiency in the action procedures in case of fighting an actual war," the report said. (DPRK-Test Fire-Missile)

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WELLINGTON -- A person is confirmed dead after a helicopter crash early morning on the day in Otago district, South Island of New Zealand, according to a local police spokesperson.

Police received a report that a helicopter was overdue about 6.30 am on Thursday, local police said. (NZ-Helicopter-Crash)