A Hong Kong street artist was charged on Friday with assaulting a police officer and criminal damage, the first prosecution against an anti-government protester since the city was rocked by unprecedented demonstrations.
Sparked by a law that would have allowed extraditions to mainland China, the city has witnessed three huge peaceful rallies as well as civil disobedience and violence from a hard core of younger protesters who have besieged the police headquarters, and on Monday stormed and ransacked the city's parliament.
Authorities have vowed to hunt those behind the unrest that has plunged the semi-autonomous city's Beijing-backed government into crisis.
Pun Ho-chiu, 31, appeared in court on Friday over his alleged involvement in the blockade of the city's police headquarters on 21 June.
He was also charged with disorderly behaviour for throwing eggs at police outside the headquarters during the six-hour siege.
A well-known activist nicknamed "Painter" for his street art, Pun was ..

First charges against Hong Kong anti-government protester

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South Africa's Imran Tahir is readying himself for an emotional farewell to one-day international cricket, although the veteran is upbeat about the Proteas' future.
Saturday's World Cup match against reigning champions Australia is set to be Tahir's 107th and last ODI before the leg-spinner bows out of the 50-over game at international level.
Born in Pakistan but married to a South African, the much-travelled Tahir made his ODI debut in February 2011, just a month before his 32nd birthday.
But the 40-year-old has still taken 172 ODI wickets heading into this weekend's match in Manchester.
This has been a disappointing World Cup for South Africa, with just two wins from eight games so far and the Proteas have long been out of the race for semi-final qualification.
"As a team, we need to think about finishing on a good note," he said. "But it makes me feel very sad and emotional that I'm going to leave.
"It was always my dream to play international cricket and I'm really grateful to ...

South Africa's Tahir set for emotional exit

England coach Trevor Bayliss believes his side have "a point to prove" now they are in the semi-finals of the World Cup after falling short in the last two major international tournaments.
A dramatic last-over defeat by the West Indies saw them finish runners-up in the 2016 World Twenty20 while a year later they lost at home to Pakistan in the semi-finals of the Champions Trophy.
England, whose 15-man squad features seven survivors from both of those losses, are now through to their first World Cup semi-final since 1992 and will face either champions Australia or India at Edgbaston a week on Thursday.
The team has effectively been in knockout mode for their last two matches, with wins over India and New Zealand guaranteeing their place in the last four.
"You will have to ask the players but they probably think they have a point to prove," said Bayliss following England's 119-run thrashing of New Zealand.
"We have to be able to produce what we have done in the last two games in the ...

England have a 'point to prove' in World Cup semis, says Bayliss

At 36 years young, Brazil captain Dani Alves could be forgiven if he was thinking of hanging up his boots and admiring his bursting trophy cabinet.
Instead, Alves is preparing to play a key role when Brazil take on Peru in Sunday's Copa America final at Rio de Janeiro's Maracana stadium, and the full-back is showing no signs of letting up.
"I know how old I am, and I know what that means in football, but I've learnt that people want results," said Alves, currently without a club having announced last month he was leaving Paris Saint-Germain.
"I'm focussed on that, I'm not focussing on my age nor what people think of me.  "I'm not here to shut anyone up, I'm simply here to do my job."
As it is, his trophy cabinet already contains one Copa America title and according to some lists, more trophies than years he's been alive.
He's won the Champions League three times, the old UEFA Cup twice, the Club World Cup three times, European Super Cup four times -- and that's just at European ...

Serial trophy-collector Dani Alves shows no signs of letting up

Rafael Nadal may not end up winning a third Wimbledon singles title but he will take joy from having beaten his 'bete noire' Nick Kyrgios in an engrossing but bad-tempered grudge match.
The 33-year-old Spaniard on Thursday came through in four sets 6-3 3-6 7-6 (7/5) 7-6 (7/3) which saw fiery but talented Australian Kyrgios receive a warning for unsportsmanlike behaviour after a running argument with the umpire while twice serving under-arm.
Nadal's pleasure was evident when he sealed the match against a man he had accused of lacking respect for the sport as he fist-pumped and jumped in the air yelling to his camp seated on Centre Court.
"I was aware of everything," said Nadal, who was winning his 50th match at Wimbledon.
"I was just next to him so I don't want to comment on this  but potentially he is a Grand Slam winner." Earlier, his great rival, eight-time champion Roger Federer had no such problems as he eased into the third round, beating British wild card Jay Clarke 6-1 7-6 ...

Nadal teaches Kyrgios lesson at Wimbledon, champion Kerber knocked out

Yemeni rebel drones targeting a civilian airport in southern Saudi Arabia were intercepted on Thursday, a Riyadh-led military coalition said, as the Iran-linked group steps up attacks on the kingdom.
The drones targeted Jizan airport, the coalition said in a statement released by the official Saudi Press Agency.
The coalition did not report any damage or casualties.  Huthi rebels earlier claimed drone attacks on the airports in Jizan and Abha, the capital of southern Asir province, according to the group's Al-Masirah TV.
The coalition did not confirm the attack on Abha.  The rebels in Yemen -- who have faced persistent coalition bombing since March 2015 which has exacted a heavy civilian death toll -- have stepped up missile and drone attacks across the border in recent weeks.
On Tuesday, a Yemeni rebel attack on Abha airport left nine civilians wounded, the coalition said.
On June 12, a rebel missile attack on Abha airport wounded 26 civilians, drawing promises of "stern action" from 

Saudi Arabia intercepts new Yemen rebel drones: Coalition

Sudan's ruling generals and protest leaders reached an agreement on the disputed issue of a new governing body Friday, mediators said, in breakthrough talks aimed at ending the country's months-long political crisis.
"The two sides agreed on establishing a sovereign council with a rotating military and civilian (presidency) for a period of three years or little more," African Union mediator Mohamed El Hacen Lebatt told reporters.
The power sharing agreement came after two days of talks that resumed on Wednesday after the previous round of negotiations collapsed in May over who should lead the ruling body -- a civilian or soldier.
Tension between the ruling generals and protest leaders had further soared after a brutal raid on a longstanding protest camp in the capital Khartoum that killed dozens of demonstrators and wounded hundreds on June 3.
Both sides also "agreed to have a detailed, transparent, national, independent investigation into all the regrettable violent incidents that ...

Sudan generals, protesters reach agreement on new ruling body: Mediators

White House National Security Advisor John Bolton applauded the interception by Britain's Gibraltar Thursday of a supertanker believed to be carrying Iranian crude oil to Syria, saying the ship was breaking international sanctions.
"Excellent news: UK has detained the supertanker Grace I laden with Iranian oil bound for Syria in violation of EU sanctions," Bolton tweeted.
"America & our allies will continue to prevent regimes in Tehran & Damascus from profiting off this illicit trade," he said.
Iran condemned the detention of the tanker as an "illegal interception," but Gibraltar Chief Minister Fabian Picardo said in a statement that the cargo was believed destined for the Banyas Refinery in Syria, which is subject to European sanctions.
"That refinery is the property of an entity that is subject to European Union sanctions against Syria," he said.
The 330 metre (1,000 feet) Grace 1 tanker was halted in the early hours of Thursday by police and customs agencies in Gibraltar, a ...

US: Detention of tanker loaded with Iranian crude 'excellent news'

US President Donald Trump said Thursday that the situation in Southern California after a strong 6.4-magnitude earthquake appeared to be under control amid reports of scattered damage.
"Been fully briefed on earthquake in Southern California. All seems to be very much under control!" Trump tweeted.
The quake struck near the city of Ridgecrest and the US Navy's China Lake weapons testing range.
A hospital damaged by the quake in Ridgecrest was being evacuated, and an official at China Lake said there was "substantial damage" to their facilities, including fires, water leaks and spills of hazardous materials.

California quake: Trump says all 'very much under control'

Southern California was rocked by a 6.4-magnitude earthquake Thursday morning, the US Geological Survey said, with authorities warning that the temblor, the largest in two decades, might not be the day's last.
The shallow quake struck in the vast desert region of the Searles Valley in San Bernardino County just six miles (10 kilometers) from the town of Ridgecrest at 10:33 a.m. (23:03 IST), but was felt 160 miles away in Los Angeles and even as far as Las Vegas in the neighbouring state of Nevada.
Local authorities emphasised that the end of the earthquake did not mean residents were yet in the clear, however President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter that "All seems to be very much under control!"
Caltech seismologist Lucy Jones told a press conference that residents "will continue having a lot of aftershocks," adding that dozens had already occurred and that some may be as strong as magnitude five.
Emergency responders did not immediately report mass injuries or any deaths, but USGS ...

Southern California rocked by strongest quake in two decades

Nearly 7,000 people have been killed during security operations in Venezuela in the past year and a half, the UN said Thursday, warning that many of the killings likely constituted "executions".
In a fresh report, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said the Venezuelan government had registered at least 6,856 killed in alleged confrontations with state forces since the beginning of 2018.
"The incidence of alleged extrajudicial killings by security forces... has been shockingly high," Bachelet's office said in a statement.
Last year, the government registered 5,287 killings, purportedly for "resistance to authority" during such operations, between January 1 and May 19 this year, another 1,569 similar killings were registered, according to the report.
The numbers were provided by the Venezuelan government to the UN rights office in response to a request made following a visit to the country by a technical team in March, spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told AFP, adding .

UN decries 'shockingly high' number of likely 'executions' in Venezuela

A sailboat belonging to Italian charity Mediterranea has rescued 54 people including pregnant women and children in distress off the Libyan coast, the charity said on Thursday.
"All 54 survivors have been rescued and are now aboard," Mediterranea, which is made up of left-wing activists, tweeted.
"Among them 11 women (three pregnant) and 4 children.... Happy to have rescued 54 lives from the hell of Libya. Now we need a safe port."
Italy's far-right Interior Minister Matteo Salvini who has tried to close Italian ports to migrant rescue vessels swiftly tweeted that Mediterranea's 18-metre (59-foot) sailboat Alex should take those rescued to Tunisia.
"Otherwise we will activate all procedures to prevent Italy being a port of arrival for human traffickers," Salvini said.
He added the rescue boat was "dozens of nautical miles closer to Tunisia than Lampedusa," the southern Italian island where Italian authorities last week seized a vessel belonging to German aid group Sea-Watch and ...

Charity says sailboat rescues 54 migrants off Libya

Hundreds of migrants were still held Thursday in a centre days after it was hit by an air strike that killed 44 people, amid outrage over the plight of those still trapped in Libya.
The announcement by a UN agency came as the internationally recognised government based in the capital Tripoli said it is considering closing migrant detention centres in the North African country.
The Government of National Accord "is currently reviewing the closure of shelters and the release of illegal migrants to ensure their safety and security", GNA interior minister Fathi Bachagha said.
The GNA does not have the capacity to protect migrants from air raids, Bachagha said during a meeting with Maria do Valle Ribeiro, assistant to the UN special envoy to Libya, according to the ministry.
At least 44 migrants were killed and more than 130 wounded Tuesday night in the air strike that targeted a hangar in a detention centre in the Tripoli suburb of Tajoura.
On Thursday, around 300 migrants of the centre's 

Migrants still detained at site of deadly Libyan air strike

Regime air strikes Thursday on an anti-government bastion in northwest Syria killed four civilians, two of them children, and hit three hospitals already damaged in previous raids, a monitor said.
A fifth person, another child, was killed in a separate air raid by regime ally Russia also in the Idlib region, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said.
The Idlib region is supposed to be protected from a massive regime assault by a September buffer zone deal, but the area housing three million people has come under increased regime and Russian fire since April.
The region is administered by Syria's former Al-Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, but other jihadist and opposition factions are also present.
"Regime warplanes again targeted three hospitals in the south of Idlib," which had been hit and damaged in raids in previous weeks, the Observatory said.
There were no casualties in these raids on the village of Hass and the town of Kafr Nabl, it ...

Syrian regime strikes kill four civilians, hit hospitals

A 3,000-year-old quartzite  head of Egyptian "Boy King" Tutankhamun was auctioned off for USD 6 million on Thursday in London despite an outcry from Cairo.
Christie's auction house sold the 28.5-centimetre (11-inch) relic for 4,746,250 pounds (USD 5,970,000) at one of its most controversial auctions in years.
No information about the buyer was disclosed.
The famous pharaoh's finely-chiselled face -- its calm eyes and puffed lips emoting a sense of eternal peace -- came from the private Resandro Collection of ancient art that Christie's last auctioned off 2016 for USD 3 million.
But angry Egyptian officials wanted Thursday's sale halted and the treasure returned.
Christie's decision "contradicts international agreements and conventions," Egypt's foreign ministry said on Wednesday.
Former antiquities minister Zahi Hawass told AFP that the piece appears to have been "stolen" in the 1970s from the Karnak Temple complex just north of Luxor.
"We think it left Egypt after 1970 because in ...

Tutankhamun relic sells for USD 6 mn in London despite Egyptian outcry

The UN rights chief warned Thursday that many of the thousands killed in Venezuela security operations since 2018 likely constituted "executions", and urged Caracas to dissolve its special police force.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, who visited Venezuela last month, pointed out in a fresh report that thousands of people, mostly young men, had been killed in alleged confrontations with state forces in the country in recent years.
"The incidence of alleged extrajudicial killings by security forces... has been shockingly high," Bachelet's office said in a statement.
In 2018, the government registered 5,287 killings, purportedly for "resistance to authority" during such operations, between January 1 and May 19 this year, another 1,569 similar killings were registered.
"There are reasonable grounds to believe that many of these killings constitute extrajudicial executions committed by the security forces," the report said, especially pointing a finger at ...

UN decries Venezuela 'executions', urges dissolution of special forces

Sheep shearing experts flocked to a small town in the French countryside on Thursday for the opening of the annual world championship, a four-day event held for the first time on French soil.
More than 320 competitors from 34 countries as far apart as Norway, Japan and the Cook Islands, are battling it out to win titles in woolhandling, machine shearing and "blade" shearing, a traditional method using scissors.
And the 5,000 sheep on site will no doubt appreciate a hair cut, with temperatures expected to peak at 34 degrees Celsius (93 degrees Fahrenheit) over the coming days in Le Dorat, a town in central France.
It is the first time the international competition sets foot -- and hoof -- on French soil, although the town, which is home to 1,800 people, has previously hosted the French sheep shearing championships in 2013 as well as the Six Nations tournament the same year.
Last year, it also welcomed a 24-hour sheep shearing marathon, with six shearers clipping around 2,500 sheep, ...

Sheep shearers flock to world championship in France

Eight hikers died in a flash flood in Mexico, authorities said Thursday.
They were walking along a stream in northern Coahuila state Tuesday when a sudden surge of water swept them away, state authorities said.
An initial investigation suggests the water rose quickly because rain-collecting tanks in nearby hills overflowed, the civil protection department said.
One of the hikers was 65 and the rest were believed to be from 15 to 20 years of age.
Two dozen police, firefighters and other rescuers took more than a day to locate the remains of the hikers, who were found Wednesday.

Flash flood in Mexico kills eight hikers

A hashtag calling for the arrest of journalists briefly became the top Twitter trend in Pakistan Thursday, deepening concern over a shrinking space for dissent in the country.
The hashtag #ArrestAntiPakjournalists had dropped to second place by evening, but not before it had been used or forwarded more than 28,000 times.
Many users accompanied it with a composite photograph of prominent journalists and TV anchors, some of whom regularly criticise the governing Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party of Prime Minister Imran Khan and the powerful military establishment.
"These are the people who are responsible for chaos, anarchy, manipulation. They are the real enemy of the states," said one tweet.
"Hang them all #ArrestAntiPakJournalists," said another.
Criticism of the country's powerful security establishment has long been seen as a red line for the media, with journalists and bloggers complaining of intimidation tactics including kidnappings, beatings, and even killings if they cross .

#ArrestAntiPakjournalists tops Twitter trends in Pakistan

EU president-elect Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday made her first trip to Brussels since being nominated as senior officials sought to shore up support for her appointment in the European Parliament.
After talks with Jean-Claude Juncker, the man she is to replace as European Commission president, current German defence minister von der Leyen tweeted she had come to seek "smart advice" as she prepares her plan for the next five years.
She must win the approval of the highly fragmented European Parliament, where there have been grumblings about the deal to appoint her -- which was cooked up by EU national leaders over three days of tortuous summit wrangling.
"My priorities will be to seek smart advice, listen to all parliamentary groups and together work out the best plan for the future of Europe," von der Leyen tweeted, a day after  talks with MEPs at the parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France.
The multilingual von der Leyen -- the first woman to be named to lead the EU's executive .

New EU chief seeks 'smart advice' on first trip to Brussels

Roger Federer reached the last-32 of a Grand Slam for the 70th time on Thursday when he defeated British wild card Jay Clarke 6-1, 7-6 (7/3), 6-2 in the second round at Wimbledon.
The eight-time Wimbledon champion, who is chasing a 21st major crown, unleashed 46 winners past the battling world number 169.
"I struggled to take care of business a bit from the baseline," said 37-year-old Federer after equalling Jimmy Connors' record of making the Wimbledon third round on 17 occasions.
"Thankfully I played a pretty good breaker, I had some help from him as he gave me a couple of unforced errors.
"The tank is full. I came here with a lot of confidence, the first few matches haven't been very taxing physically.
"This first week has been going well and I know the opponents in terms of ranking will now get better."
Federer will face either Lucas Pouille, the 27th seed, or qualifier Gregoire Barrere for a place in the last 16.

AFP

AFP

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