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Hong Kong, China – Hong Kong ’s political standoff continued on Monday as protesters blocked roads and clashed with police ahead of a planned mass protest on the anniversary of the city’s return to mainland China . Police used pepper spray in an attempt to disperse protesters gathering around Hong Kong’s Central Government Offices (CGO) complex early in the morning, after the demonstrators used re-purposed crowd control barriers to block  several streets leading to the site.  The dawn protests, which follow several weeks of demonstrations over a controversial extradition bill that would allow suspects to be sent to the mainland for trial, come as the former British territory prepares to celebrate its Special Administrative Region Establishment Day, marking its return to Chinese rule in 1997.  Less than a kilometre from the unrest, the local government continued its preparations for a ceremony to mark the handover at Golden Bauhinia Square, behind water-filled barricades designed

Gunmen have opened fire on the convoy of a Lebanese minister in a mountain village near Beirut, killing two of his guards and wounding another, in what he called an assassination attempt. Saleh al-Gharib, the minister of state handling refugee issues, told local TV he was heading to the mountain village of Qabr Shamoun when his convoy came under fire on Sunday. “What happened was an armed ambush and a clear assassination attempt,” al-Gharib said in an interview with Lebanon ‘s al-Jadeed TV. Gharib is a member of a party allied with Hezbollah and supportive of the Syrian government, and has close ties with pro-Syrian Druze leader Talal Arslan. “Despite bloodshed, we are working to calm the situation,” al-Gharib told Lebanese newspaper Annahar. Lebanese state news agency NNA reported that the violence erupted in 30km southeast of Beirut, where followers of the Lebanese Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), a vocal critic of the Syrian government, had blocked a road to prevent Foreign

Palestinians have condemned the attendance of two  United States officials at the inauguration of a tunnel at a contested archaeological site in occupied East Jerusalem  that was organised by an Israeli settler-linked group. White House adviser Jason Greenblatt and Ambassador to  Israel  David Friedman took part in Sunday’s event, which marked the completion of the project next to the Old City in the neighbourhood of Silwan, according to the group, the City of David Foundation. In a statement, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said it viewed “the American attendance and celebration of the Judaisation activities in occupied East Jerusalem as hostile acts against the Palestinians”. “The administration of President Donald Trump proves day by day its … unlimited affiliation to the colonial settlement project led by the extremist right in the state of the occupation (Israel),” it said. Israel occupied East Jerusalem in the 1967 war and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the

Relatives of Alan Kurdi, the two-year-old Syrian boy whose drowning while trying to reach Europe in 2015 shook consciences around the world, have objected to a new film about the toddler. The boy perished in September 2015, along with his mother Rehanna and four-year-old brother Ghalib, when their small rubber boat capsized in the Aegean Sea while attempting to reach  Greece  after f leeing the war in  Syria . The heartbreaking photo of the boy’s lifeless tiny body, face down on a beach in Turkey, sparked a deep emotional reaction and became a rallying point for activists and others to offer assistance in Syria’s  refugee crisis . It also pushed the  European Union  to temporarily open its borders to  Syrian refugees . Tima Kurdi, an aunt of the boy, told the told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in an article published on Friday that no one had asked the family’s permission to make the new movie about her nephew. “I’m really heartbroken right now,” she said from her home in

US President Donald Trump  and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have each stepped over the border at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that divides the Korean Peninsula, after shaking hands on Sunday. With the highly symbolic gesture, Trump became the first sitting US president to set foot on North Korean soil. What originally was intended to be an impromptu exchange of pleasantries turned into a 50-minute meeting, another historic first in the yearlong rapprochement between the two nations, which are still technically at war with each other. It marks a return to face-to-face contact between the leaders after talks broke down during a summit in Vietnam in February. Trump announced afterward that the two nations had agreed to resume discussions in the coming weeks. Significant doubts remain, though, about the future of the negotiations and the North’s willingness to give up its stockpile of nuclear weapons. “Stepping across that line was a great honour,” Trump said at a joint news co

Egypt ‘s former presidential candidate Abdul Moneim Aboul Fotouh has suffered two heart attacks in prison, his son said, adding his father may die there because of the harsh conditions under which he is held. Aboul Fotouh’s son, Ahmed, wrote on Facebook on Saturday his father, who is a leading opposition figure, may succumb to the “deliberate” abuse in Cairo’s Torah prison “at any time”. A former member of the Muslim Brotherhood  and leader of the centrist Strong Egypt Party, Aboul Fotouh ran as an independent candidate in the 2012 presidential elections, gaining nearly a fifth of the vote in the first round. Aboul Fotouh was detained in February 2018, ahead of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s re-election, on charges of being part of a banned group, unspecified by Egypt’s prosecution, but widely believed to be the Brotherhood. He is also being accused of spreading false news. “Today, while we were waiting to visit him, he had a heart attack,” Ahmed Aboul Fotouh said on Facebook. “

Israel has detained and questioned the Palestinian minister for Jerusalem affairs, Israeli police have said. Palestine ‘s Minister for Jerusalem Affairs Fadi al-Hadami was detained for “activities in Jerusalem”, Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld told AFP on Sunday. Palestinian media reported that Israeli police had arrested al-Hadami from his home in Jerusalem in the early hours of Sunday morning, after searching the premises. The sources said five other Palestinian men were also arrested on Sunday, from areas across Jerusalem, Bethlehem and south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank. The detainees identified by Palestinian media included Haydar and Alaa Dirbas who were arrested at the Maqasid Hospital in Occupied East Jerusalem, and Ihab Saeed who was arrested from his village near Jerusalem.  The Israeli authorities did not comment on why the men were arrested. Hadami meets Chile’s president  A source close to the minister told AFP that al-Hadami’s arrest is likely

Osaka, Japan – As this year’s G20 summit closed on Saturday, United States President Donald Trump agreed to hold off on an escalation in his trade dispute with China and to resume bilateral talks, potentially giving the world economy a reprieve. But there was no agreement to comprehensively roll back the punitive tariffs that the two sides have imposed on one another’s goods, or for China to make the deep structural changes to its economy that Trump is demanding. The summit in Osaka, Japan , may also come to be remembered as the one in which the G20 became the G19-plus-one, with the US as the lone voice against measures to tackle climate change. After a bilateral meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping , Trump indicated that all current levies, including the 25 percent import tariffs he slapped on $200bn worth of Chinese goods in May, would remain in place – but the two leaders agreed that they would not intensify the conflict. An additional $325bn of goods, covering nearly

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has arrested a Palestinian businessman for taking part in the US-led economic conference in Bahrain , according to a security source and local media. The PA’s intelligence service detained Salah Abu Mayala, a businessman from the city of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, the security source told AFP news agency on Saturday. The source said the PA had decided to arrest Palestinians found to have taken part in the conference, where US President Donald Trump ‘s son-in-law Jared Kushner earlier this week presented the economic component of a long-awaited Middle East initiative. The Palestinian leadership boycotted the summit and insisted a political solution to the conflict with Israel must come before economic issues could be addressed. A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Saturday slammed the conference, which took place in Bahrain’s capital, Manama, on Tuesday and Wednesday . “The abject failure of the Manama workshop … is a clear

Military officials with Libya ‘s United Nations-recognised government say they have seized United States-made weapons at a base they captured from forces loyal to renegade General Khalifa Haftar in Libya, prompting an investigation by the US State Department. The Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA) on Wednesday retook Gharyan, a strategic town south of the capital, from Haftar’s self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA). The GNA said that among the weaponry its forces had seized were a number of US-made Javelin anti-tank missiles packed in wooden crates marked “armed forces of the United Arab Emirates” (UAE). Libyan media also aired footage that appeared to show markings that indicated that the US-made weapons were originally sold to the UAE –  a major buyer of US weapons and one of Haftar’s main international supporters –  in 2008. “The seized weapons and ammunition have been sent to the specialised experts and have been documented,”  Mohammed Qununu, spokesman of the

As demonstrators in  Sudan plan to return to the streets on Sunday f or mass rallies  dubbed the “ millions march “, the country’s ruling military council has warned protest and opposition groups that they will be held responsible for any deaths or damage. “We warn of the seriousness of the crisis our country is going through,” the Transitional Military Council (TMC) said in a statement on Saturday carried by state news agency SUNA. The TMC said it held the Freedom and Change alliance, which is leading the protest movement, “fully responsible for any spirit that is lost in this march, or any damage or harm to citizens or state institutions”. The alliance has called on protesters to take to the streets of Khartoum and other cities on Sunday to demand the TMC cede power to civilians and justice for all the lives lost at the hands of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) during a bloody dispersal on June 3 of a protest camp outside the military’s headquarters in the capital. A

Sudan ‘s ruling military council has said a proposal submitted by the African Union (AU) and Ethiopia received on June 27 is suitable for the resumption of talks with the opposition on a transition to democracy. The generals of the ruling Transitional Military Council (TMC) and the opposition coalition have been wrangling for weeks over what form Sudan’s transitional government should take after the military deposed long-time president Omar al-Bashir on April 11. Mediators led by the AU and Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed have since been trying to broker a return to direct talks between the two sides. On Thursday, they presented a joint proposal to both sides after the TMC rejected a previous Ethiopian proposal and called for mediation efforts to be unified. ‘A suitable proposal’ A draft of the AU-Ethiopia proposal suggested few changes from a previous Ethiopian plan that a coalition of protesters has endorsed, Reuters news agency reported. Sudan protesters accep

Queen Maxima of the Netherlands is facing a barrage of criticism over a meeting she had with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Momammed bin Salman during the G20 summit in Japan. Agnes Callamard, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions, who has been investigating the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi , accused Maxima of complicity by not discussing the case with the crown prince. “If you do not speak and do not demand justice, it suggests that you have no concerns,” Callamard told Dutch daily Algemeen Dagblad on Saturday. In her investigation, Callamard said Bin Salman should be investigated over the killing of Khashoggi, citing “ credible evidence “. In her long-anticipated report, which was released earlier this month, Callamard said Khashoggi’s death “constituted an extrajudicial killing for which the State of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is responsible”. Khashoggi was killed and dismembered by Saudi agents in the Saudi consulte in Istanbul on October 2. Hi

Libya’s renegade military commander  Khalifa Haftar  has banned commercial flights from Libya to Turkey  and ordered his forces to attack Turkish ships and interests in the country, spokesperson Ahmed Mismari has said. Turkey supports Libya’s United Nations-recognized government in Tripoli which retook Gharyan ,  a strategic town south of the capital, Tripoli, from Haftar’s e astern-based Libya National Army (LNA) forces on Wednesday. “Orders have been given to the air force to target Turkish ships and boats in Libyan territorial waters,” Mismari said on Friday, adding that “Turkish strategic sites, companies and projects belonging to the Turkish state (in Libya) are considered legitimate targets by the armed forces”. Mismari said Turkish aircraft “provided air cover” and bombed LNA positions in the fight for Gharyan. “All flights to and from Turkey are also stopped and any Turkish (nationals) on Libyan territory will be arrested,” he said. The fight for Tripoli, explai

Will Paul Pogba leave Manchester United? Will Neymar go back to Barcelona? Will Gareth Bale leave Real Madrid? BBC Sport’s David Ornstein and Simon Stone give us their insight on this summer’s potential transfers. Read More from Trendy News Viral https://ift.tt/2XcHNWu

Taliban fighters have killed at least 25 pro-government forces in northern Afghanistan as a seventh round of peace talks with the US is set to get under way in Doha. The Taliban attacked the pro-government fighters in Baghlan on Friday night, Afghan officials have said. In addition to the deaths, eight others were also wounded during several hours of fighting late on Friday. The Reuters news agency said the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. The group’s representatives are set to meet US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad in Doha on Saturday in the latest effort to end 18 years of fighting. “There is a genuine sense of expectation on both sides,” a senior US official, who declined to be identified as he was not authorised to speak to media, told Reuters. “It’s a make-or-break moment.” ‘Crucial meeting’ Khalilzad has been in Afghanistan and regional countries for several weeks meeting a host of neighboring and Afghan officials, including Afghan President Ashraf Ghani . On a t

Across Sudan , defiant protesters are preparing to return to the streets on Sunday for what social media users are calling a “millions march”. The protesters are demanding power be handed over to a civilian-led government and justice for all lives lost at the hands of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) during a recent crackdown in the wake of President’s Omar al-Bashir’s removal from power. The Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA) on Twitter called on people to take to the streets on Sunday, saying “let’s be loud on the streets again, and let’s make the demonstrations on June 30th a prominent new page in the last chapter of the falling regime and its rigged council’s drama”.  The rally will be the first mass demonstration since the assault on protesters at a sit-in at the military headquarters in Khartoum almost a month ago.  Months of protests and the sit-in came to a deadly head on June 3, as Sudanese security forces violently dispersed the crowds outside the military headquarte

The self-described neo-Nazi who killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer when he rammed his car into a crowd of counterprotesters after a 2017 white supremacist rally was sentenced to life in prison by a federal judge in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Friday. James Alex Fields Jr, 22, had pleaded guilty in March to federal hate crimes connected to the attack at the August 12, 2017, Unite the Right rally. In exchange, prosecutors dropped their request for the death penalty. His attorneys asked for a sentence less than life. He will be sentenced next month on separate state charges . Before the judge handed down his sentence, Fields, accompanied by one of his lawyers, walked to a podium in the courtroom and spoke. “I apologise for the hurt and loss I’ve caused,” he said, later adding, “every day I think about how things could have gone differently and how I regret my actions. I’m sorry.” Fields’s comment came after more than a dozen survivors of and witnesses to the attack delivered emotion