Hong Kong police fired tear gas and rubber bullets Saturday at protesters holding a banned rally against suspected triad gangs who beat up pro-democracy demonstrators near the Chinese border last weekend, tipping the finance hub further into chaos.
Riot police used tear gas throughout the afternoon and evening in Yuen Long, a town close to the border, after tense standoffs with protesters, some of whom were throwing projectiles and had surrounded a police van.
Hospital authorities said nine people were injured, with five in a serious condition, as rubber bullets were fired later in the evening to disperse remaining protesters.  Public anger has been raging since last Sunday when a gang of men in white T-shirts, armed with poles and batons, set upon anti-government protesters and bystanders in Yuen Long station.
That brazen assault -- which hospitalised at least 45 people -- marked an escalation of seven weeks of unprecedented political violence that shows little sign of abating as the 

Police fire tear gas, rubber bullets at Hong Kongers protesting 'triad' attack

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Kevin De Bruyne, Raheem Sterling and Lukas Nmecha were all on target as Premier League champions Manchester City wrapped up their Asian tour with a 3-1 win over Japan's Yokohama Marinos on Saturday.
Bernardo Silva fed De Bruyne for the game's opener in front of 65,000 fans at Nissan Stadium, just outside Tokyo, as the Belgian cut inside and unleashed a powerful shot with his left foot.
Keita Endo scored a surprise equaliser for Yokohama before De Bruyne released the pace of Sterling, who made no mistake as he slotted past the goalkeeper with two defenders in pursuit.
The fast-paced first half gave way to a slower second period, with a few missed chances for both sides including an attempt by Sterling in the 58th minute that was ruled out for offside.
Kazaki Nakagawa was denied by City goalkeeper Claudio Bravo before Nmecha, 20, bundled in the visitors' third goal in the final minute after a cross from 18-year-old Adrian Bernabe.
The victory ended a sometimes difficult Asian tour for ..

De Bruyne, Sterling on target in Man City win

Armed men, described as jihadists, raided a village in Burkina Faso's restive north, killing 14 people, plundering and burning shops and motorbikes, local and security sources said Saturday.
The raid took place on the night of Thursday to Friday with "around 20 individuals attacking the village of Diblou and killing 14 people," a security source said.
"The terrorists burnt shops and mopeds. Almost the entire market was looted," a local resident said.

14 killed in jihadist attack in Burkina Faso: Sources

Mick Schumacher completed an emotional three-lap demonstration run in his father Michael's championship-winning Ferrari F2004 car on Saturday before qualifying at the German Grand Prix.
The 20-year-old son of the seven-time world champion said it felt like "torture" as he waited to emerge from the pit-lane in front of a big crowd at the Hockenheim circuit.
Now a Formula Two driver, Schumacher wore a helmet that paid tribute to his father's career as he drove the car that carried his father to 13 victories and the drivers' title in 2004.
"I just wanted to go out and I just wanted to drive," he said.
"Obviously, having to wait, even in front of the pit exit, was more like torture.
"I never lost a smile. It was always on my face. Even when I was locking up, I was smiling! It was really cool.

Mick Schumacher thrills crowd in his father's Ferrari

French President Emmanuel Macron and other foreign leaders attended Friday the funeral of Tunisian president Beji Caid Essebsi as the North African nation gears up for snap elections as early as September to defend the democratic gains of the Arab Spring.
Essebsi, the country's first head of state elected in nationwide polls, died Thursday at the age of 92, triggering fears of political unrest in a country seen as a rare success story following the Arab Spring uprisings.
Thousands of mourners lined the 20-kilometre (12-mile) road from the presidential palace in Carthage, where the body was laid in state, to the Djellaz cemetery in southern Tunis where Essebsi was to be buried.
Officers in full uniform carried the coffin draped in the Tunisian flag into a ceremonial room at the Carthage palace packed with dignitaries, placing it on a dais.
Parliament speaker Mohamed Ennaceur, who was sworn in as interim president hours after Essebsi's death, paid tribute to the late leader describing ..

State funeral for Tunisia's Essebsi as new polls loom

A young Austrian triathlete kidnapped while riding her bike talked her way to freedom by complimenting her captor's orchids, a police source said Saturday, confirming press reports.
Professional triathlete Nathalie Birli, 27, was struck by a car Tuesday and broke her arm while falling to the ground near Graz in southeastern Austria, the press reports said.
The driver then knocked her out with a piece of wood and took her to his isolated home.
"When I regained consciousness, I was naked and tied up in an armchair in an old house," Birli told the Kronen Zeitung newspaper.
The man forced her to drink alcohol and tried to suffocate her and drown her in a bathtub filled with cold water, Birli said.
However she managed to placate the man by complimenting him on the many orchids growing in his home.
Though he was initially "filled with hate," the man suddenly became "nice to me" and confided that gardening was his passion before opening up about his troubled childhood, she said.
Finally, he .

Austrian triathlete freed by kidnapper after complimenting orchids

Russian police arrested more than 300 people as they gathered in Moscow on Saturday to demand free and fair elections, a monitor said, following a crackdown on the opposition.
The rally comes a week after the capital's biggest demonstration in years, when some 22,000 people protested the authorities' decision to block opposition candidates from standing for the city council in September.
Investigators raided the homes and headquarters of several disqualified candidates in the run-up to the fresh rally on Saturday.
Top Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was jailed for 30 days for calling for the demonstration.
Other leading opposition figures and would-be candidates were also arrested in the hours leading up to the event, which comes amid declining living standards and a fall in President Vladimir Putin's approval ratings.
OVD Info, which monitors protests, said at least 317 people had been arrested in the first hour of the demonstration.
"Honestly, I'm scared," 42-year-old IT worker Alexei 

Moscow police arrest hundreds at rally for fair elections

A suicide bomber killed six soldiers Saturday in the southern province of Daraa, in a rare deadly attack against the cradle of the uprising that sparked Syria's war, a monitor said.
The bomber, who was riding a motorcycle, blew himself up at a military checkpoint killing the six soldiers and wounding several other people, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Syria's state news agency SANA also reported a suicide bombing but said it happened during an "army raid" that targeted "terrorists", a term used by authorities to describe rebels and jihadists.
SANA said several soldiers were wounded when "a terrorist detonated an explosive belt during an army raid".
It was not immediately clear who was behind the blast, but pro-regime forces in Daraa province face explosions and gunfire on a near daily basis, although they are usually not deadly.
Earlier this month, an six soldiers were killed in an explosion that targeted an army convoy near Yadud village, some seven ...

Suicide bomber kills 6 regime soldiers in Syria: Monitor

Regime air strikes on Saturday killed 12 civilians in northwest Syria, where ramped up attacks by Damascus and its ally Russia have claimed the lives of hundreds since late April.
Idlib and parts of the neighbouring provinces of Aleppo, Hama and Latakia are under the control of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadist group led by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate.
The region is supposed to be protected from a massive government offensive by a September buffer zone deal, but it has come under increasing bombardment by the regime and its Russian ally over the past three months.
On Saturday, two children were among 11 civilians killed in air raids on the Idlib town of Ariha, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The attack wounded 28 others, said the Britain-based monitor.
Two residential buildings in Ariha were hit by raids, in the second such attack on the town this week, said Observatory head Rami Abdul Rahman.
Regime air strikes killed 10 civilians in Ariha on Wednesday, according ..

Air strikes kill 12 civilians in northwest Syria: Monitor

Libya's UN-recognised government said its forces struck a desert airbase Friday that has been a key staging post for the transport of troops and supplies by eastern-based strongman Khalifa Haftar.
Since April, the government has been battling an offensive against the capital by Haftar's forces, who already control most of the far-flung oases and oilfields of the desert south as well as their eastern stronghold.
"The air force struck a gathering of mercenaries at the Al-Jufra base, destroying a hangar for drones belonging to a hostile country," on Friday night, government forces said on Facebook.
They said they also destroyed a munitions depot and hit an Ilyushin Il-76 military transport aircraft.
Pro-Haftar television channel Libya Al-Hadath confirmed the base had been attacked but gave no details.
Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army said it carried out air strikes of its own against multiple targets in third city Misrata, from which many of the government's best equipped and ...

Libya government planes strike key Haftar airbase

British authorities entered the Bahraini embassy in London late Friday, arresting a protester who claimed he was beaten by embassy staff after clambering onto the roof.
Video footage posted on Twitter shows the man, named by fellow protesters as Moosa Abd Ali, scaling on the roof before disappearing from view.
Abd Ali earlier wrote on his Twitter page that he was demonstrating against the execution of two men, named by him as Shiite citizens Ali Al-Arab and Ahmed Al-Malali, on terror charges.
"Police were called to the Embassy Of The Kingdom Of Bahrain at 22:47hrs (2147 GMT) on Friday, 27 July following a report of a man on the roof of the building," a police statement said Saturday.
"Upon hearing a disturbance on the roof, officers entered the building and detained the man.
"The man... was arrested for trespass ... He is currently in police custody." Police said they followed firefighters into the west London building.
Campaigners said the authorities broke down the door, although ...

UK police enter Bahraini embassy as protester scales roof

At least three police officers were killed and a dozen more wounded Saturday when a Taliban suicide bomber drove an explosives-packed, US-made armoured vehicle into a compound in eastern Afghanistan, officials said.
The pre-dawn blast took place as violence rages across Afghanistan, even though the US is leading a push for a peace deal with the Taliban, with a new round of talks expected in the coming days.
According to Aref Noori, the spokesman for Ghazni province, Saturday's attack targeted the police headquarters compound in Ghazni's Ab Band district.
"A Humvee vehicle was driven into the compound and blown up. Three police officers have been killed and 12 wounded," he told AFP, adding the vehicle had been captured from Afghan forces.
Ahmad Khan Sirat, the provincial police spokesman, told AFP the police headquarters building had also been partially damaged in the attack, which was claimed by the Taliban.
The attack came hours after another Taliban assault in Ghazni province late ..

At least three killed in Taliban attack on police base

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Saturday said Brexit was a "massive economic opportunity" but had been treated under his predecessor Theresa May as "an impending adverse weather event".
In a speech in Manchester where he pledged new investment in Leave-voting areas, Johnson promised to step up negotiations on post-Brexit trade deals and set up free ports to boost the economy.
"When people voted to leave the European Union, they were not just voting against Brussels, they were voting against London too," he said.
Johnson promised to give more powers to local communities, as well as boost broadband and transport infrastructure in a speech focused on domestic issues.
"Taking back control doesn't just apply to Westminster regaining sovereignty from the EU, it means our cities and counties and towns becoming more self governing," he said.
"Leaving the EU is a massive economic opportunity to do things we've not been allowed to do for decades," he said.
Asked about the prospect of ...

Brexit is a 'massive economic opportunity': PM Johnson

Regime air strikes on Saturday killed 10 civilians in northwest Syria, where ramped up attacks by Damascus and its ally Russia have claimed the lives of hundreds since late April.
Idlib and parts of the neighbouring provinces of Aleppo, Hama and Latakia are under the control of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadist group led by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate.
The region is supposed to be protected from a massive government offensive by a September buffer zone deal, but it has come under increasing bombardment by the regime and its Russian ally over the past three months.
On Saturday, two children were among the nine civilians killed in air raids on the Idlib town of Ariha, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The attack wounded 28 others, said the Britain-based monitor.
Two residential buildings in Ariha were hit by raids, in the second such attack on the town this week, said Observatory head Rami Abdul Rahman.
Regime air strikes killed 10 civilians there on Wednesday, ...

Air strikes kill 10 civilians in northwest Syria: Monitor

Iran's top diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif hosted his Omani counterpart Yusuf bin Alawi in Tehran on Saturday, his office said, amid mounting tensions in the region between Tehran and Washington.
The talks between Zarif and Bin Alawi centred on the "latest regional and international issues", the foreign ministry said in a brief statement posted on its Telegram channel.
Oman has maintained good relations with Iran throughout successive regional crises, allowing it at times to play a key mediating role, including with the United States.
Tensions in the Gulf have soared since last year when President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and reimposed sanctions on the country.
In retaliation, Iran said in May it would disregard certain limits the deal set on its nuclear programme and threatened to take further measures if remaining parties to the deal, especially European nations, did not help it circumvent US sanctions.
Tensions have escalated ...

Iran's Zarif hosts Omani counterpart amid Gulf tensions

Russian police arrested dozens of people as they gathered at Moscow city hall Saturday to demand free and fair elections, an AFP journalist said, following a crackdown on the opposition.
Thousands of Russians had vowed to take to the streets of the capital after authorities refused to allow opposition and independent candidates to stand for Moscow's city council in September.
Investigators raided the homes and headquarters of several disqualified candidates in the run-up to the protest, while top Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was jailed for 30 days for calling for the demonstration.
Other leading opposition figures and would-be candidates were arrested in the hours leading up to the event.
The Saturday protest is the latest in a series of rallies over the local election, which comes amid declining living standards and a fall in President Vladimir Putin's approval ratings.
Local polls are a rare opportunity for dissenting voices to participate in political life as anti-Kremlin parties .

Dozens arrested at Moscow protest after opposition crackdown

Hong Kong police fired tear gas Saturday at protesters holding a banned rally against suspected triad gangs who beat up pro-democracy demonstrators near the Chinese border last weekend, tipping the finance hub further into chaos.
Riot police fired multiple rounds of tear gas in Yuen Long after tense standoffs with protesters, some of whom were throwing projectiles and had surrounded a police van.
Public anger has been raging since last Sunday when a gang of men in white t-shirts, armed with poles and batons, set upon anti-government protesters and bystanders in Yuen Long station, leaving at least 45 people needing hospital treatment.
The brazen assault was the latest escalation in seven weeks of unprecedented political violence that shows little sign of abating as the city's pro-Beijing leaders refuse to budge.
Police have been heavily criticised for being too slow to respond to Sunday's violence, fuelling accusations of collusion or turning a blind eye to the pro-government mob -- ...

Police fire tear gas at Hong Kongers defying ban on 'anti-triad' rally

Thousands of Russians say they will take to the streets of Moscow on Saturday to demand fair local elections, despite a police crackdown on the opposition that has seen top Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny jailed.
The planned rally is the latest in a series of protests over authorities' refusal to allow dozens of opposition candidates to stand for election to Moscow's city council in September.
Local polls are a rare opportunity for dissenting voices to participate in political life as anti-Kremlin parties have been squeezed out of parliament over President Vladimir Putin's 20 years in power.
Investigators raided the homes and headquarters of several disqualified candidates in the run-up to the protest, while Navalny was jailed for 30 days for calling for the demonstration.
Security was tight in central Moscow on Saturday and six people were arrested in front of city hall hours before the protest started, according to OVD-Info, which monitors arrests during demonstrations.
Politician and 

Russian opposition plans election protest despite arrests

A British computer security researcher called a hero for stopping a global ransomware attack but blamed for creating other damaging malware has been set free by a federal judge after having pleaded guilty to US criminal charges.
Marcus Hutchins, whose arrest in 2017 stunned the computer security community, was sentenced to "time served" by the Milwaukee, Wisconsin federal court and given one year of supervised release, but will be able to travel back to Britain during that period.
He faced up to 14 months in prison for the two charges of creating and selling malware, for which he pleaded guilty in April.
Hutchins, 25, earned a reputation as a hacking hero in 2017 when he discovered a "kill switch" to stem the spread of the devastating WannaCry ransomware outbreak.
But months later he was arrested while attending the Def Con computer hackers conference in Las Vegas on charges that he and another individual created and distributed a trojan program called Kronos, which was designed to ...

Ransomware 'hero' Hutchins freed after guilty plea

President Donald Trump has brushed off the bellicose language accompanying North Korea's latest short-range missile test, saying it referred to ally South Korea, not the United States.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called two missiles fired Thursday under his personal supervision a "solemn warning" to the South over planned military drills with the United States.
Trump, who has invested heavily in a relationship with Kim, widely seen as one of the world's most repressive dictators, was unconcerned.
"He didn't send a warning to the United States," the president told reporters.
"They have their disputes, the two of them have their disputes," he said of North and South Korea, which fought a 1950-1953 war in which US troops took a major part, ending up as the South's principal protector.
Trump noted that the missiles were short-range, calling them "very standard." Although they could not have reached anywhere near the United States, the missiles' range would easily include ally South ...

Trump says N Korea missile tests no threat to US

Eight people were killed and dozens injured when a series of earthquakes struck islands in the far northern Philippines early Saturday, toppling historic buildings and sending terrified locals fleeing their homes.
The tremors hit the province of Batanes, a group of sparsely populated islets north of the nation's largest Luzon island, tearing deep cracks in roads and forcing the evacuation of a hospital.
Authorities said some of the dead, including two babies under a year old, were crushed by the walls of their own homes.
"We saw houses shaking. Some of the walls of the houses collapsed and fell on the victims," Police sergeant Uzi Villa told AFP.
"Some people died because they were sleeping soundly since it was still early," he added.
Many people were still asleep when the first tremor struck around 4:15 am (2015 GMT Friday), followed just under four hours later by a second, stronger jolt.
The biggest of the quakes -- of magnitude 5.4 and 5.9 -- struck within hours of each other, ...

AFP

AFP

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